The African American Educational and Cultural Festival held its third annual benefit concert Saturday and drew a nice crowd of several hundred people to Grangebel Park for live music, a fashion show, food and refreshments.
Despite the forecast of inclement weather threatening the event earlier in the week, Saturday turned out to be a beautiful summer day.
Marylin Banks Winter, AAECF founding president and co-chairperson, said the event was a wonderful success. She estimated about 400 people turned out to enjoy the music, food and fashion show. She has gotten great feedback about it, she said.
County Executive Ed Romaine stopped in to wish the organization well and present AAECF with a proclamation.
RIverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard also attended the event with his wife Lisa. Council Member Bob Kern was also in attendance. AAECF co-founder and advisory committee member Cynthia Richardson also in town for the event.
AAECF was founded in 1996 to honor, embrace and celebrate African American culture and its history, according to its mission statement. The organization works to achieve those goals through providing educational and cultural experiences for all people and “building youth into stronger citizens who are aware, sensitive to differences and capable of constructive expression of dissimilar opinions,” its website says. AAECF offers a speakers bureau, mentoring programs, advocacy, entrepreneur and apprentice training and more.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
Photos by Brigid Raustiala/Courtesy of AAECF
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