NAACP discusses plans for future

Local branch aims to boost involvement in activities, offices

Scholarships, block parties, a volunteer cemetery cleanup and upcoming branch elections were all on the agenda during the Blair County NAACP's meeting Wednesday evening.

The NAACP holds elections for officers every two years so the local branch will be seeking and voting for its own candidates for office, Chapter President Andrae Holsey said.

"At this time, we are seeking presidential candidates and candidates for several other positions," Holsey said. "I am not formally resigning or disappearing off the map or anything like that, but we are seeking qualified applicants for the executive positions."

The chapter is seeking dedicated individuals who are "willing to be involved" and "show up on time to be part of the process here at the NAACP," Holsey said.

"The big focus, going forward, is just the handling of the day-to-day," Holsey said. "As an organization where nobody is paid, it is a little difficult sometimes to get volunteers regularly in the office and involved. But the work that we have or that we do has very far-reaching implications. We are especially looking to young people for involvement right now."

Holsey said the NAACP state conference notified him of an advisory committee they are building statewide for this election and that he recommended they reach out to Branch Historian Harriett Gaston for Penn State contacts.

"They're looking for representatives of all the major colleges and the universities in the commonwealth, as well as other major nonprofits, civil rights and workers organizations, that will all coalesce under the protection and organization of the State Conference of the NAACP so that we can better execute our work," Holsey said.

In other matters, Holsey announced an updated scholarship packet "just in time for school to start" that was sent to school counseling departments in Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties.

"While we do want to support individuals seeking higher education in the trades, funds are extremely limited for nonprofits this particular year," Holsey said. "And even though we have endowments to contribute to more scholarships, we really want to make sure that we are executing the mission and the vision of our association specifically, which is to get individuals into higher service through education."

A list of national and state NAACP scholarships for college students is being updated, Holsey said, adding that there is a new requirement to receive one of their scholarships.

"All applicants must be current members in good standing of the NAACP for a unanimous vote of the executive committee," Holsey said. "We want to drive youth membership and involvement. We don't want to just give out money and see people go on their happy way."

The application packets will be due to the branch by March 20, 2025, with winners announced by April 16, Holsey said.

The local branch has also planned a volunteer cleanup, restoration and expansion of the Eastern Light Cemetery for Sept. 27. Holsey said they need as many "hands-on-deck" as possible to restore headstones, replace fence posts, put in a shed for maintenance tools and "generally clean up the space."

"We discovered that the Eastern Light Cemetery is, in fact, a form of mass grave," Halsey said. "That small spot has somewhere upwards of 200 individual African Americans who are buried there."

An in-service day for the Altoona Area School District, Holsey said Sept. 27 would allow a "little bit more flexibility for the community, even though it's a regular work day."

With the local branch's summer block parties coming to a close, Holsey touched on how the events had progressed and where they were going.

"I want to tell you folks that we fed upwards of 1,600 people in low-income communities this summer," Holsey said. "I'm waiting for the opportunity to do an exact count with the board of the Booker T. Washington (Revitalization Corps), but over 1,000 people were fed by our programs that we did in the community."

However, Holsey said the president of the board no longer wanted to be responsible for organizing the block parties so, if they were to continue, they would have to be a "collaborative effort from the folks that are dedicated and willing to show up."

"I will have discussions with folks about that, going forward," Holsey said. "But for now, it does not appear that there are going to be block parties for next year."

If the branch is able to maintain them, Holsey suggested downsizing the events and having fewer parties. He recommended limiting them to three "main parks."

"Iuzzolino Park because it is sponsored by the Refuge Youth Network, which is very heavily involved in community work here," Holsey said. "Prospect Park because it's probably the community that gets the least attention but needs the most with about 98% of its students at Penn Lincoln Elementary School receiving state and federal assistance, and also being one of our largest block parties."

The third would be Grove Memorial Park, Holsey said, since the basketball courts are named after their past president Don Witherspoon.

"That's the one that usually wraps up the year before we go back to school," Holsey said.

Gaston also spoke during the meeting to provide members with dates for upcoming events, beginning with the 2025 African-American Heritage Festival set for July 26-27, 2025.

The Blair County Historical Society will recognize Gaston during its 2024 Heritage Hall of Fame dinner on Sept. 26 for her efforts in overseeing the 2024 Juneteenth program in which she shared information for the society's exhibit on African-American history, the Underground Railroad and United States Colored Troops.

"I'm also thinking about a program for Martin Luther King Jr. the Sunday before that Monday," Gaston said. "I think since we've not done an MLK program in Altoona basically after the pandemic, I think it would be good to do that. And the goal would probably be just to hear the readings of Dr. Martin Luther King in addition to the 'I Have a Dream' speech. So more things to come from that."

The Blair County NAACP meets every third Wednesday of the month at the Railroad City Cultural Center.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.