Like countless others from Cambridge, Dion Banks headed out right after high school. The military took him to Kentucky, then Kuwait. Later, a random dart thrown at a map had him heading for Chicago.

Fortunately for Dorchester, Banks returned, not once, but twice. Since that second trip back, he's made pivotal contributions while paving the way for others.

On Friday, Feb. 3, Banks also made his aunt, Brenda Hayward, "super-excited" by sharing his purposeful journey with members of the Cambridge Woman's Club as the group's guest speaker for Black History Month.

Headquartered at historic Sycamore Cottage on High Street, next door to Waugh United Methodist Church Community Chapel, the club quietly presides almost precisely at the juncture where Pine Street begins.

For his part, Banks did much more than deliver an address. In his trademark congenial, conversational tone, Banks brought forward his own remarkable story of a “kid from Cambridge who left and came back," along the way learning to ask the question (in his words), "How do you know where you're going, if you don't know where you've been?"

At the outset of his talk, Banks promised to draw on his problem-solving skills, business acumen and community outreach experience to help the club embark on specific steps to preserve and upgrade its beloved building, from fixing the roof to adding accessibility, and infuse its mission with fresh programming and branding, designed to help it grow as a partner with the community.

Appointed by then-Gov. Larry Hogan to serve on the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, Banks was also tapped for the Cambridge Waterfront Development board.

His impressive resume includes Army service in Operation Desert Storm, several college degrees, a 20-year career with Cambridge International, plus co-founder (with attorney Kisha Petticolas) and president of nonprofit Eastern Shore Network for Change.

ESNC may be best known for 2017's “Reflections on Pine,” a four-day event devoted to commemorating and, what Banks referred to as "reclaiming the narrative," surrounding the devastating 1967 fire which ravaged Pine Street 50 years earlier.

During Reflections, Michael Rosato's mural honoring Pine Street's African American heritage, visible immediately after crossing the Frederick Malkus Bridge at Route 50 and Maryland Avenue, was unveiled, amid quiet threats. Banks' home, too, had to be kept under police guard for protection, according to Petticolas.

Ultimately, the efforts successfully focused renewed attention on Pine Street through a fresh lens, leading to an influx of funding to begin addressing long overdue housing, education and other needs.

Banks and Petticolas became regarded as trusted voices of reason, able to defuse tinderbox subjects that need solving; they still are.

"ESNC is often called on to facilitate community conversations. We worked with the Cambridge Police Department on the Gun Violence Reduction Committee to address crime in our community. In conversations facilitated by ESNC, kids in our community came with a curfew as one of many suggestions. The city took their list of suggestions seriously. This later led to the proposal of and adoption of a curfew," Banks said.

Upon arrival at the Woman's Club, Banks was pleasantly surprised by seeing Petticolas in attendance; later, she joined him at the podium.

He described how, at 17, he scored so high on military admissions tests he was asked to take them again in Baltimore, to dispel suspicions he had somehow cheated. He was then shipped out to begin studies at the University of Kentucky, via his enlistment agreement.

Though students were supposed to be deferred from active duty, Banks served in the Desert Storm campaign against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Eventually earning two degrees, Banks felt he was on the crest of doing great things upon returning back home.

"But, you all remember how the economic situation was in Cambridge in the 1990s, jobs were scarcer than today," Banks told the group. A seafood company lab technician spot fell through, relegating him to working "on the floor all day, handling boxes of fish," he recalled.

A risk taker at heart, believing "there's gotta be something more to life," Banks literally threw a dart at the map to decide his next move; it landed on Chicago. "I had never been there a day in my life," Banks mused.

After earning a computer science degree at Loyola University, Banks stepped into teaching positions and life seemed good until 2001, when his dad became ill.

Again he returned home, this time embarking on a rewarding 20-year career at Cambridge International, where he was able to travel around the world "three times over," he said.

Banks also traveled throughout Maryland after being asked to join Leadership Maryland, which he likened to "another college degree." Participants from varied backgrounds visited counties across the state, learning about challenging issues at the grassroots level, hopefully returning home to help develop creative responses and solutions.

He experienced another type of impactful real-world training during incumbent Cambridge Mayor Victoria Jackson Stanley's second campaign in 2012. Petticolas, who had helmed Stanley's first campaign, tapped Banks, who she recognized from Leadership Maryland literature, as assistant campaign director.

The tough campaign involved months of knocking on doors and face-to-face constituent conversations. While their candidate managed to pull out a victory, Banks and Petticolas couldn't shake the realization that, though unspoken, race was the underlying issue needing to be addressed before others could be solved.

To find out whether their instincts were correct, the pair organized an open community discussion at Pine Street's abiding Bethel AME Church, managing to somehow "twist the arms" of several people to preside as panelists, Banks recalled. (The two were later instrumental in helping get funding for church restoration projects.)

When the doors opened, a whopping 300 seats were filled, though separately by race, and the panelists hung back, wary of approaching.

At Banks' and Petticolas' urging, the audience mingled, the panelists advanced up front, and within 15 minutes, stories and tears were flowing, the two remembered. One immediate outgrowth was the creation of ESNC.

Over the next five years they worked nonstop planning Reflections on Pine, including talks by noted authors Peter Levy (“Civil War on Race Street”) and David "Nicky" Henry (“Up Pine Street, Vols. 1 & 2”), a gala celebrating Harriet Tubman, Gloria Richardson, her “lieutenant" Fred Jackson, and his daughter, Mayor Victoria Jackson Stanley, and a memorable church service.

"I still tear up when I remember opening those doors and seeing how the people of Cambridge showed up for that," Petticolas said.

Banks also worked to successfully have Feb. 11, 2017, declared as Gloria Richardson Day by the governor (down to changing the protocol surrounding such an honor bestowed on a living person) and to help plan the Pine Street Walking Tour, writing the detailed brochure himself.

Recently, ESNC has been partnering with the World Leadership School, working with the next generation of leaders, helping youngsters learn practical ways to effect positive changes, as described on its website worldleadershipschool.com.

"Each community deals with its past in a different way, some chose to ignore it, and some, like Cambridge, Maryland are confronting it. We partner with local leaders to investigate the racial history on the Eastern Shore and use it as a case study to create long-lasting systemic change."