Palm Beach County (PBC) has two Alpha chapters--
Omicron Upsilon Lambda
and Delta Delta Lambda--and they work together. See what they, and their brothers in Freeport, Grand Bahama, are doing this month.
|
|
Imagine a room filled with college-educated, hard-working, good-looking black men--like these!--dancing to LL Cool J and the Ohio Players. With a bar just across the aisle. A
full
bar. Yep: that'll be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, September 19, at the third Old School Groove Night, held every third Thursday at Zara Jazz Cafe in West Palm Beach (WPB). The fun event is a fundraiser for the Alpha Educational Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Delta Delta Lambda chapter which, among other things, provides scholarships to PBC students, including those in its Men of Tomorrow program. Entry fee is just a $5 donation to the Foundation--which attendees can increase if they like! And this month, something new: the first 10 women who attend get a free cocktail!
Click
here
for
the event flyer.
|
|
|
Community Commerce & Flea Market Returns!
|
|
The community event will relaunch after its summer break on Saturday, September 28 at the Judge Edward Rodgers Center for Community Development in Riviera Beach. All vendor spaces are just $20 and benefit the Alpha Educational Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Delta Delta Lambda chapter. It will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature a car wash fundraiser that starts at 9 a.m. by the SOS Community Marching Band, one of the onsite nonprofits at the Rodgers Center (see below). For more event information, including paying for vendor spaces, click
here
. And remember its main focus: support of small businesses.
|
|
'Call to Action' in October: Ex-Felon Voting Rights
|
Next month, Alpha Men from 40 statewide chapters will convene in PBC for their 2019 District Conference of the Florida Federation of Alpha Chapters--and will together participate in a panel discussion and workshop with a focused theme:
A Voteless People is a Hopeless People: Amendment 4; Now What?
The two PBC chapters are hosts and invitees include aware elected officials, state attorneys, public defenders, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the League of Women Voters of Florida and several ex-felons themselves. The workshop and discussion is free and open to the public and will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on October 18 at the West Palm Beach Marriott, home to the conference, which runs through October 20. The ex-felon event's purpose? To push back against state efforts to weaken Amendment 4 to the State Constitution, which passed in 2018 with 64 percent of the statewide vote and extended voting rights to 1.4 million ex-felons. State law this year modified that by requiring payment of all restitution first. Read a story
here
about an Alpha Man who is fighting
that
law: state Rep. Al Jacquet, who represents District 88 in PBC. No RSVP is required to attend the event but for information, call 561-707-0795 or send an email
here
.
|
|
|
|
Judge Rodgers Center Update
|
Did you know that the Rodgers Center is about community uplift? Thanks to the Alpha Man for whom the Center is named, Judge Edward Rodgers, that's its focus. Since opening in October 2018, the Alphas have hosted a career fair, food giveaways, community discussions and is sharing space with activist nonprofits working on, well, community uplift. Interested in hosting an event there? Call 561-627-8362, x. 202
or send an email
here
. Here's
a list of their current partners and what they do:
- Thrive For A Change of the Palm Beaches, a grassroots, ex-felon re-entry program. Learn more here.
- Suits For Seniors, an eight-week, life-skills training program primarily for young high school men of color. Visit its website here.
- Nelson's Outreach Ministries, which provides a variety of support services to needy families. It's website is here.
- Florida Fishing Academy introduces children to the water--from swimming to fishing to boating. Learn more here.
- SOS Community Marching Band. The spirited, young music educators provide skill and performance training to those from first grade to adult. Click here to learn more. And what does 'SOS' stand for? Sounds Of Success.
- Get FIT 4 U Fitness & Training. It teaches exercise, fitness and, in a sense, life skills training. Visit its website here.
|
|
|
|
The two Alpha chapters in PBC are partnering with their brothers in Freeport, Grand Bahama, to help with relief efforts following Hurricane Dorian. The PBC collection site, which opened last Saturday, is at the Rodgers Center. This will be a years-long effort, organizers say; indeed, those Alpha Men coming to PBC for the conference next month, for example, will be bringing donations with them, too. The Freeport chapter, Iota Epsilon Lambda, has partnered with a Miami-based cargo carrier to bring the collected goods to the island and have also created a GoFundMe page
here
. They produced this document, left, which lists all the ways to help. And, as the local Alpha Men say, donors don't have to be Alphas to get on the team! For drop-off dates and times, call 301-332-9025 or 561-951-8139.
|
|
About the Delta Delta Lambda chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity
|
|
Founded in West Palm Beach in 1947, the Chapter oversees a host of holistic, community-inspired programs, including the Men of Tomorrow, which provides life skills-training to high school men of color. The Rodgers Center is overseen by the Chapter's nonprofit arm, The Alpha Educational Foundation. Learn more
here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
