By Carmen M. Woodson-Wray, Gary Crusader
The Gary branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will celebrate its 52nd annual Life Membership Banquet Saturday, June 3 at 6 p.m. at the Gary/Chicago International Airport in the Bessie Coleman Hangar, 5701 Airport Road in Gary, Indiana.
The keynote speaker will be CNN political commentator Bakari T. Sellers, former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Honorary chairman for the event is Indiana State Senator Eddie Melton. Stephen Mays is the Gary branch president of the NAACP.
Mays noted that the purpose of the banquet is to increase community awareness of the NAACP and its programs. He added that the theme for the banquet is “Your vision, our reality, and where do we go from here.”
Gary boasts 1,000 residents who are members of the local branch. Forty churches are members.
The Gary branch is at present tackling the issue of environmental problems in East Chicago and Gary. Meetings are held at churches and during membership drives throughout the community where residents discuss the problem of lead contamination in those communities. The national president of the NAACP, Cornell Brooks, was recently in Gary to assist the local branch with this environmental concern, and to conduct mandatory training for board members.
Branch president Mays commented, “the Gary branch NAACP is the strongest organization in existence in the city that can bring this community to one accord with a focused agenda that serves the best interests of the community.”
For ticket information contact the local Gary NAACP branch.
