YPC Black History Month Youth Bus Trip: Learn the Past, Shape the Future!

By nadine Browne, CHairperson

OnSaturday, February 18, 2023, Rochdale YPC Chair

Nadine Brown and co-chair

Shawn Chandler hosted a Black History Month bus trip to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Washington, DC.

45 YPC youth, parents, and chaperones, boarded a charter bus at 7 a.m., seen off by President Jean Hall, enjoyed breakfast and light lunch on the bus as we traveled to Washington, DC National Mall where we stopped at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, walked along the inspirational wall, took pictures in front of

Dr. King’s statue, and took in the sunny and warm weather and the ducks swimming in the pond.

We then boarded the bus to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture where we were welcomed by a tour guide that provided the history of the museum and maps. We entered the museum in small groups and toured our rich history from slavery to the present. After touring the museum, we visited the gift shop, took a moment to reflect, took photos and boarded the bus and headed to the Golden Corral, where we ate until our heart was content, a buffet of steak, fried chicken, mac & cheese, pizza, fried shrimp, soups, salads, desserts, ice cream, slushies and so much more. We ended our early dinner and boarded the bus returning to Rochdale at 10pm. The Rochdale Village Board of Directors sponsored a few youths, giving them the opportunity to have this memorable experience. We also received a donation from a RV YPC Parent.

It was an absolute rewarding, empowering, and fun experience for our youth and community! We learned and soaked up the richness of our history, were empowered by our history and made History! We connected, laughed, supported each other, created memories, and ate good.

A huge shoutout of appreciation to YPC Youth, YPC Parents and Grandparents. YPC’s commitment to engage, empower, advocate for and uplift our youth through meaningful, educational, social and fun experiences, activities and events.

Credits: RV Board of Directors for personally sponsoring a few of our youth, President Jean Hall for seeing us off the morning of the trip, The BlaQue Resource Network’s Aleeia Abraham for printing our amazing banner, Shine Bright 360 Entertainment for designing our flyer and banner graphics, Creative Ankh Designs for YPC T-shirt graphic, Overflow Vinyl’s Jovanna Miller for printing T-shirts and sweatshirts, BestTravel.USA for our bus drivers Sergi and Wakee for taking us and bringing us back safely. We went, we saw, and we made History! Know the Past, Shape the Future!