OUR CROWD, LTD

STILL HELPING OUR YOUTH AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

In the late 60's a group of friends, who realized how desperately our Black youth needed help to go to college to prepare for a better way of life, organized to try and help out financially. In 1969, the group became known as "Our Crowd, Ltd." I recently spoke to some of the members about their activities. Alice MacDonald told me of the scholarships given last year. For 36 years, the group has quietly contributed to our Black youth helping hundreds of young people go on to college by raising the funds needed to give out these scholarships. For many years, they held a cotillion that served the dual purposes of fundraising and of formally introducing the young people to the community.

Over time, the group decided there was a need to think up new fundraising events, such as the sale of flowers in May and the sale of Christmas items during the holiday season. All of the money raised from these events is given as scholarships to students. In 2004, Our Crowd, Ltd gave funds to five deserving students going off to college. The students were: Marquis Jenkins, Lee Harry, Monica Francis, Khamael Wilson and Kyle McQueen.

Our Crowd, Ltd has been helping families in our African American community send their children to college for all these years and now it is time for the Springfield community to loudly thank and salute everyone in this organization and to try to help them continue in their very worthwhile endeavors. Knowing almost all of the members, I feel very honored to be able to share their quiet commitment over the years with Point of View readers. The members of Our Crowd, Ltd are: Audrey McCloud, Gloria Jacobs, Alice MacDonald, Ethel Hudson, Shirley Williams, Juanita Shaver, Sylvia Humphrey-Spann, Sylvia Oakley, Maxine Hall, Dale Parker, Dianne Riva and Deborah Hill.

On another note, on Saturday, February 12, 2005, I was the guest of Joyce M. Wilson at the delightful musical program held at Symphony Hall to remember the late Cab Calloway. His grandson, C. Calloway Brooks, sang and acted his way through quite a few songs from his grandfather’s repertoire. I was very glad to see so many of my African American friends in the audience enjoying themselves as I was. As a final note, during intermission, Joyce left her seat and ended up getting lost in the Symphony Hall. Can you imagine! For those of you who haven’t been in awhile, there have been quite a few changes made to the basement area where the rest rooms are located and if you’re not careful it could happen to you. n