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NAACP hosts 45th annual Freedom Fund Dinner
The Greencastle NAACP honored a number of local residents at its 45th annual Freedom Fund Dinner last Thursday at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church.
Charity Pankratz was honored with the branch's President's Award, while the "Patriots for Peace" were honored as Citizens of the Year.
Margo Bode, who organized the Patriots for Peace for the three years they protested the Iraq war on the courthouse lawn, accepted the award on the group's behalf.
"Had the war gone on for 30 years, she would have gotten herself up out of the grave and parked herself next to the buzz bomber," said Kelsey Kaufman before giving Bode the award.
For her part, Bode was happy for the group to receive some positive recognition for its efforts.
"Over the time we were demonstrating, we were called a lot of things. 'Citizen' is the best we could have hoped for," Bode said.
GHS senior Ashton Marshall also shared with the group his reflections on the NAACP-sponsored trip that five Putnam County students took to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Chief among Marshall's memories were those of what it was like to be part of such a mass of humanity.
"We got up early trying to miss the crowd. Little did we know that two million other people were thinking the same," he said to a round of laughter.
"I literally wasn't standing on the ground; I was hovering above it because other people's feet were already occupying the ground," he added.
He also reflected on the fact that with all those visitors to the nation's capital, there was no crime to speak of.
"Everyone was there for the right reason," he said.
Marshall, Robert Watson, Anthony Brown, Derek Dean and Allison Cobb, along with chaperones Beth Newton Watson and NAACP President Rajai Bimbo, made the 10-hour trip and braved sub-freezing temperatures to be a part of history.
"Yes, it was definitely worth it," Bimbo said with a smile.