By Dale Avery
President, 100 Black Men of Central Illinois
I have spoken on numerous occasions about the 100 Black Men of Central Illinois. Many of you who will hear this message may have heard or know about the work we do in the Bloomington/Normal Community. For those of you that don’t know, we are a non-profit organization with the mission of improving the quality of life in the communities where we live. Our chapter accomplishes this by focusing our work and efforts around 4 key pillars – Mentoring, Education, Health and Wellness, and Economic Empowerment.
The Central Illinois Chapter is eleven years old and we are very proud of the successes in the community since our inception. We have mentored hundreds of kids, given away thousands of dollars in scholarships, hosted health forums and conducted events to enhance student and adult economic knowledge.
Second, along with (2015 Mentee of the Year Markus Brooks), we took two students teams from Bloomington/Normal to participate in the State Farm African American History Challenge and the Dollars and $ense programs. Our history team gave a great effort but was defeated in the first round by the team who won the championship. Our Dollars and $ense team won second place and only lost by a narrow half point margin. The African American History Challenge team included Christian Baker and Radiance Campbell and the Dollars and $ense team was made up of Alexys Ogorek and Stacie Harms, all from Normal Community High School.
Last of all, I was extremely blessed by being recognized with the Wimberly Award for Service. I am still in shock having been selected out of ten thousand plus members. As I said in my acceptance comments, I was granted this honor because of the gifts and strengths I received from our Heavenly Father, the morals instilled by my parents, the support of my wife and children, and fellow local chapter members that have carried out our vision.
100 Black Men of Central Illinois' annual Excellence Gala is August 26 -- tickets & information are available online, from members of the 100, or at J-Bo's Handbags, 216 N. Center St., Bloomington. Keynote speaker is Dr. Harold Davis, founder and CEO of TALKS mentoring program.