NAACP sponsors community breakfast
People from across Fayette County joined together Saturday morning to celebrate community spirit and cooperation at the first Community Achievement and Recognition Day Breakfast held at the Youghiogheny Western Baptist Association Headquarters in Uniontown. Sponsored by the Fayette County Chapter of the NAACP, the breakfast also recognized the achievements of local youths in both athletics and academics. “It takes a whole community to move forward. I think it’s important to recognize that Fayette County can work together. We have many more similarities than differences,” said Clinton Anderson, president of the NAACP Fayette County Chapter. “If you can’t be part of the solution, then you must be part of the problem.”
The event honored area youths for their scholastic and academic accomplishments. Community Achievement and Recognition Awards were presented to the entire Uniontown High School basketball team as well as Calvin Winfrey and the Rev. Vincent Winfrey, both adult volunteers who donated tremendous amounts of time to the basketball program over the years.
The Rev. Louis Ridgley applauded the team for their terrific season, which included a WPIAL Quad A championship and runner-ups for the state basketball Quad A title.
“It was an exciting year and this team represented Uniontown very well. These young men on this team have all of the qualities you would want in an adult,” Ridgley said.
The NAACP also presented its annual Dr. F.L. Vaughns Memorial Scholarship Awards.
Award winners this year included Monica Edwards from Albert Gallatin High School, Christopher Johnson from Frazier High School, Tiffany McLee from Uniontown High School and LaNighta Sales from Brownsville High School.
The awards are given in honor of Dr. F.L. Vaughns, a civic leader and first African-American dentist in the Fayette County area. Diane Ridgley urged the honorees to follow Dr. Vaughns example and value education.
“Dr. Vaughns was always dedicated to the advancement of minorities. He also realized that an education is paramount to young minority students,” Ridgely said.
The keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Dana Brooks, dean and professor of physical education at the West Virginia University.
As an author of three books and frequent lecturer across the country on issues related to African Americans and sports, Brooks urged students to be dedicated to their academic studies as well as their athletic endeavors.
“The odds of making it to the professional level are 10,000 to 1. I sometimes tell students that you have a better chance of being hit by a meteorite. That doesn’t mean you have to dunk your basketball dreams but you should have a backup dream as well,” Brooks said.
Throughout his speech, Brooks stressed the value of higher education and sports programs working together and criticized intercollegiate athletic programs that fail to help students graduate.
He pointed out that a number of Division I basketball programs have low graduation rates for student athletes but still qualify for the NCAA basketball tournament every year.
“It’s a problem when we are applauding and clapping for these teams but then we find out that many of those players are not graduating,” Brooks claimed.
Brooks also told students that having a college degree is the key to a successful future.
“Less than 2 percent of the world has a college degree. Having a degree allows you to join an elite status. Higher education remains the caveat for having a good life,” Brooks said.
Brooks also hopes that education can help solve social problems that have traditionally been impediments to unity and diversity in the community.
“Hopefully, with higher education, we can begin to eradicate other traditional African-American problems such as diversity and identity,” Brooks said.