I’ve been a long time reader of Patrick Eakes’ blog and the beneficiary of several email "conversations" over the past year and a half.  I finally got to meet him at the ConvergeSouth conference last month and that brief conversation affirmed what I already knew; he’s a quality guy and a great benefit to his community, even if he is an NC State fan/alum.

I think I know where Patrick gets it.  His uncle, Martin Eakes, is the CEO of Self-Help Credit Union
which is a group that makes loans to people who aren’t typically well served by traditional banks (women, minorities, rural citizens, etc.).  Patrick wrote a post about a negative and misleading report targeting Self-Help and the relationship that the report’s authors have with the predatory lending (i.e. payday loan) industry.

I know Patrick has a lot of readers and it’s absolutely fantastic that he has the ability to help debunk some pretty shady "reporting" by his uncle’s opponents/detractors.  Not that I think he or his uncle need it, but if I can add a few enlightened souls by linking to Patrick’s post I’m glad to do it.

This area is very lucky to have folks like the Eakes here and I just wish we had a bunch more like them.  Maybe then we could share them with the folks in DC.

Now I just need to get Patrick to wake up and see that Wake Forest is THE premier school in the ACC and all would be perfect!