NAACP Youth Council and African American Forum
   of G.E. Host, 6th Annual Back to School Fun Day

Brenda Cochran Staff Writer On Saturday July 29, 2006, the Dayton NAACP Youth Council joined the African American Forum of G.E. in hosting the sixth an­al Back to School - Stay School Fun Day. The special event was held at the DeSoto Bass Courts - 811 Oldfield Avenue from 10:00-2:00.	Charles Allen, First Vice President, Fred Cox, President and Mycal Carr, former President of the NAACP Youth Council assisted in all the activities on Saturday.
The scene was filled with very excited young people some dressed in yellow T-shirts gathering around a fire truck watching and listening to several firemen as they described the parts of the truck. Three other young people - the President of the Youth Council, Past President the First Vice President were sitting at a table passing out literature lived to the group from the fire department. In an accompanying building near the grounds, Barbara Mack, Director of the Youth  Council, Carolyn Perkins, the Community Publicity Chairperson of the NAACP and Renee Sheppard,  volunteer were busy organizing things and preparing some of the refreshments,    Fred Cox, a junior at Stivers School for the Arts came in and spoke enthusiastically about the council. He shared this. "The Back to School-Stay in School is something that we do annually. We go to different com­munities each year in order to outreach to different kids. Last year we were in Trotwood. Basically the event is a fun-filled event and we bring the G.E. Pro­gram, we bring a magician - "Amazing Shaner" and other things so that the kids can have fun. We feed them, give out prizes and the big bang happens at the end of the the day when we give out book bags. We also filled the bags with plenty of supplies to help kids get excited about school. Things just don't happen in the commu­nity where they can come and everything is free."
Normally there is a big crowd of young people who come to the event. Fred also said that they feel very proud about the programbecause there aren't that many youth councils that come out." We really want to outreach some additional youth councils so that we can become one huge youth council.
It's good to see them laugh and smile." Carolyn Perkins noted that the council with the NAACP is an outstanding that has been number one in the na­tion for several years. When asked how the pro­gram is funded?  Carolyn said that it is a combination of Mead Corporation, NAACP, private donations and youth council money. She has worked with the NAACP in several capacities noting how much it means to not only the children who receive, but also the young members who work hard making the council - the best it can be. Barbara Mack has worked with the youth council for many, many years and loves the work done by the young people. She spoke about Mycal Carr, the former presi­dent who will be attending Howard University in the fall. "Mycal won the Gloster B. Current Award that is the high­est award a youth can win on the national level." She also said that for four years, Day­ton has dominated the national with all the awards. Mrs. Mack  is clearly only interested in whatever the young people achieve, but she did share that she was voted number two advisor in the nation. Accord­ing to Mrs. Mack, "This year we |only won three, but we were voted number three out of eight hundred youth and college divisions. I will be los­ing six of my very best stu­dents, but all of them are go­ing to college." The African American Forum, a part of G.E., is the major sponsor that gives the program five thousand dollars every year. They also contributed one hundred book bags for the event and help with all the games. DWN spoke with Rhonda Williams of the Afri­can American Forum who shared their part. She said, "We are an organization through G.E. Money and basically what we do is to serve the com­munity. We go out and serve the community by supporting any community events that we have and we' ve partnered with the NAACP for the last three years and providing any assis­tance that is needed." Mrs. Mack also stressed the assis­tance that other companies have provided. "We want to offer thanks to Kroger's office and Mr. Martin Crump, to 'Target" - Dayton Mall, Cub Foods--and Mr. Dan Braun who donated all of the hot dogs and buns for this event." Barbara Mack believes that the youth council is blessed be­cause each member has faith in The Lord. Mrs. Mack de­scribed how things have just opened up and how there are times when the organization is not sure of where the money will come from. She ended by saying, "We are so thankful for all of our supporters and the people who believe in what we are trying to do."