Russell to speak at annual NAACP freedom dinner
Mark Russell, a College of Wooster graduate and the 2022 National Teacher of the Year, is the keynote speaker at the Oct. 22 Freedom Fund Dinner in Wooster. The Freedom Fund Dinner is a fundraiser to support the Wooster-Orrville NAACP Scholarship, awarded annually to qualified high school seniors in Wayne County.
The Wooster-Orrville NAACP will hold its annual Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. at the Greystone Event Center, 50 Riffel Road, Wooster.
The Freedom Fund Dinner is a fundraiser to support the Wooster-Orrville NAACP Scholarship, awarded annually to qualified high school seniors in Wayne County. To date, more than $45,000 in college scholarships has been dispersed through the Wayne County Community Foundation. The Freedom Fund Dinner also supports other community engagement projects of the local NAACP.
This year’s Freedom Fund keynote speaker is Kurt Russell, a 1994 graduate of The College of Wooster and the 2022 National Teacher of the Year. Russell is currently a history teacher at Oberlin High School, where he teachers African American history, U.S. history and history of the Americas in the International Baccalaureate Program. He also has served as the Oberlin High School boys basketball coach since 1996.
In an AP interview shortly after he was named Teacher of the Year, Russell said his family’s history has had an impact on his classroom instruction. His mother Retta Russell marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Linden, Alabama when she was in high school.
“That’s how I fell in love with history, by hearing those stories,” Russell said.
He said his hope in the classroom is to bring attention and awareness to the importance of diverse faculty and representative curriculum that helps students feel more empowered in their education.
The 2023 Freedom Fund event will feature an in-house soul food dinner and a variety of dessert choices. Before and after dinner, attendees will have the opportunity to check out the many items donated for the silent auction. People may bid on auction items at the dinner and/or online for five days afterward.
Tickets for the Freedom Fund Dinner are $60 per person, with other donation-based options available. Purchase tickets by filling out the Freedom Fund Dinner form on the website at www.wooster-orrvillenaacp.org and returning it by mail or through the online tickettailor site at https://buytickets.at/naacpunit3208. Click on the green button on the right and follow prompts to the ticket sign-up. The tickettailor link also includes dinner information and directions to the Greystone Event Center.
NAACP chapters all over the country hold Freedom Fund Dinners to invite members of their community to support and celebrate social justice and equal treatment of all people. The Wooster-Orrville NAACP is inviting the Wooster/Wayne County community to gather with them on Oct. 22.