NAACP holds annual event
While speaking at the 16th annual Human Rights Dinner, Aaron A. Walton encouraged those in attendance to be the role models future generations need in order to succeed and flourish. The theme of this year’s dinner, by the Fayette County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was “Making a Difference – Equality for All.”
Serving as the keynote speaker Saturday evening, Walton said young people need role models they can look up to and learn from, effective leaders who can help the next generation succeed.
Walton, a self-proclaimed “Fayette County boy,” graduated from California University of Pennsylvania before leaving the area to attend graduate school.
He is now senior vice president of corporate affairs for Highmark Inc., one of the nation’s largest health insurers in the nation with 2.3 million customers in Pennsylvania, 20 million customers nationwide and annual revenue in excess of $8 billion. Walton accepted the Community Service Award, health care, for The Highmark Caring Foundation.
Walton said he would have never made it to where he is today without people who led and guided him when he was a youth, and said he is thankful to those people.
“People in my life planted trees under which they knew they would never sit and dreamed dreams they knew they would never see come into fruition,” he said.
In addition to speaking about effective leadership, Walton also touched on the issue of health care, and how the lack thereof affects people of all colors.
Clinton Anderson, president of the Fayette County NAACP, said health care is a problem for people in the county and surrounding area, saying that many people can’t afford health insurance.
“A lot of people are suffering, not just African-Americans,” he said, adding that everyone deserves good, affordable health care.
Anderson said the theme for this year’s dinner was decided after reading many medical journal studies and newspaper articles that addressed the disparities in health care for African-Americans, Latinos and Asians.
“The subject of health disparities has become a major topic of conversation, but talk is cheap. For millions… the inequality in health care is a daily struggle,” he said.
Anderson said the Fayette County NAACP is trying to collaborate with medical professionals, health insurance providers and social service agencies to educate citizens and eliminate health disparities.
The Fayette County NAACP, according to Anderson, is doing well.
However, Anderson said he would like to see more youth become involved with the organization.
“The education and mentoring of our youth is a primary goal of our group,” he said. “Education today ensures our children can prepare themselves socially and economically to have a better and brighter future.”