The Zanesville and Muskingum County NAACP will host its 52nd annual Freedom Fund Banquet at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, at the Muskingum County Conference and Welcome Center in Zanesville. The banquet is themed ‘Zanesville Rising: Building Power Through Community’ and will focus on community partnerships, civic engagement and efforts to advance justice, equity and opportunity, according to a community announcement.
Danielle L. Sydnor, a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors, will be the featured speaker. Sydnor also serves as president and executive director of The Presidents’ Council, an organization focused on Black business growth and economic opportunity in Northeast Ohio.
The program will include musical entertainment by Zanesville vocalist Rachel Parker and recognition of former branch presidents Kenneth T. Burker and the late Philip W. Newman. The evening pairs the branch’s annual fundraising with honors for the leaders who carried the organization in earlier years.
The Zanesville and Muskingum County NAACP, Unit #3209, was reactivated approximately a year and a half ago. Since then, its work has included voter registration and education, the Feed the Streets initiative, support for Black-owned businesses, community conversations and civil rights advocacy through its Legal Redress Committee.
Proceeds from Saturday’s banquet will support local NAACP programs involving civil rights advocacy, youth and education, voter engagement, economic empowerment, legal redress and community service. The Freedom Fund Banquet is the branch’s signature annual event and its 52nd edition marks more than five decades of the tradition in Zanesville. For a branch that was reactivated only about eighteen months ago, reaching the 52nd banquet also connects today’s members with the generations who sustained the event before them.
The timing places the banquet in the middle of early voting for the November 3 general election, a period when the branch’s voter registration and education work is most visible. Organizers describe the theme as a statement about building local power through community partnerships rather than any single program.
Tickets are $30 and can be purchased online through the branch’s banquet link. For more information, residents can contact the branch by email at [email protected]. The Muskingum County Conference and Welcome Center hosts the event Saturday evening in Zanesville.
Photo: Tristan Blatt, CC BY-SA 4.0