Juneteenth of PBC brings dream to reality with celebration, fundraiser

RIVIERA BEACH — The thought had been brewing in Sukeenah Kelly’s head since 2017.

“How dope wouldn’t it be to convey the Juneteenth pageant to Palm Seashore County?” Her buddy Brittany Mitchell replied, “Let’s do it.”

In order that they and 4 different pals based the not-for-profit Juneteenth of PBC final summer season, because the nation was in an uproar over police killings, Black lives and civil rights. And after a yr of late-night cellphone calls, gathering dozens of companies, planning and organizing, the ladies’s imaginative and prescient turned actuality Saturday, when lots of of individuals gathered on the Marina Village Park for music and meals to have fun the 156th anniversary of the top of American slavery. 

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Because the solar heated up the afternoon to 90 levels, moms pushed infants in strollers, youngsters jumped in bounce homes, cooks served a wide range of meals — Caribbean, barbecue ribs, sweets, smoothies and extra — and women danced within the grass to songs as numerous as Michael Jackson to Megan Thee Stallion. Entrepreneurs in fields comparable to actual property, legislation, cryptocurrency, scented candles and garments bought their wares and marketed their companies to passersby.

The purpose of all of it, Mitchell, 31, mentioned, was to boost cash to assist folks in much less well-off communities within the county, by way of Juneteenth of PBC. The cash will assist pay for the group’s efforts to run after-school applications to show college students monetary literacy and financial empowerment, she mentioned, in addition to assist pay for remedy classes for individuals who want it.

Juneteenth of PBC plans to pay for a visit to Africa for college students who end the four-year after-school program, dubbed The Tradition Clinic, Mitchell mentioned. “That last purpose of the journey to the motherland is one thing for them to look ahead to.”

Webster Casseus, one of many six members of the group, mentioned he needs to assist youngsters within the tough communities comparable to the place he grew up. Lots of jap Palm Seashore County’s killings occur in a stretch of neighborhoods from Riviera Seashore within the north to northern West Palm Seashore within the south.

Casseus discovered himself in the course of a melee in 2004, age 17, at a Checker’s quick meals joint in West Palm Seashore, the place police had requested a crowd of teenagers to depart once they’d gathered there following a highschool soccer sport between Palm Seashore Lakes and Homestead. When the teenagers refused and began arguing, a scuffle between them and the cops broke out. Casseus mentioned on the time he was pepper-sprayed whereas serving to up a buddy of his who had been knocked down by an officer.