Race Unity Celebration Day promotes culture, friendship and cooperation

The third annual Blount County Race Unity Celebration Day was celebrated recently at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Alcoa.

The event occurred on June 23 and brought together people of different races and religions for a day of fun, good food and fellowship. Participants learned about different cultures, and the event promoted friendship and cooperation
throughout the community.

Sponsors for the event included the Blount County Community Credit Union, Bahai of East Tennessee, Bethel Baptist Church, Blount County Chamber of Commerce, Blount Memorial Hospital, Blount County Health Department, Don Blue, Center for Strong Communities at Maryville College, Hall-Oldfield Maryville Empowerment, Inc., Mt. Pleasant-AME Zion, Muslim Community of Knoxville, Patch Ministries, Pellissippi State Community College, Pilgrim Temple Baptist Church, Race Relations Center, Rosa Tellis, St. Andrews Episcopal Church, St. Paul AME-Alcoa, St. Paul AME-Zion Maryville, Alcoa Chiropractic, ALCOA, Inc., First Tennessee Bank, Keep Blount Beautiful, Maryville College, Mona Naturelle, Townsend Market, Wal-Mart, Waste Not-Want Not and East Tennessee Ice.

Individual sponsors recognized were Kay Tate, Judy Knight, Mary Scott, Jane Carr, Melisha Cobb, Julia Henderson, Jackie Hill, Beverly, Carlos and Kouji Bahrami, Julie Loudin-Rich, Marjory and Jerry Tucker, Johnny and Daryl Ray, Tomas Mares and Denryl Ray.