Greater Lafayette Indiana Black Expo Corporate Scholarship Luncheon

150 Fairington Avenue,Lafayette IN 47905

04 May, 2023

Description

The Greater Lafayette chapter of the Indiana Black Expo is a service organization whose mission is to promote youth development through educational and leadership activities. Each year, the organizarion dispenses over $10,000 in scholarships to highschool and college students. We also provide backpacks with school supplies, sponsor the AALOT (African American Leaders of Tomorrow) student organization in local highschools as well as develope a region wide student leadership conference. We are a chapter of the Indiana Black Expois headquartered in Indianapolis. GLIBE has invited Mrs. Ophelia Wellington, founder and CEO of Freetwown VillageFreetown Village is a living history museum with the mission to educate the public about African American lives, arts, and culture in Indiana through living history, exhibits, allied programs, and the collection and preservation of artifacts. Ophelia Wellington is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and established the institution of Freetown Village in 1982. Mrs. Wellington has been instrumental in providing the vision, developing educational programs, and fund raising of Freetown Village. She also hosted a cable television show Living History with local celebrities, as well as served as a writer/editor for the local teacher association newsletter. Further, she conducted numerous workshops locally and nationally for museum professionals and educators and served in leadership capacity for several educational and museum professional organizations. Ophelia has a B.S. in Education from Indiana University, an M.A. in Journalism from Ball State University, and has attended masters program classes in Historical Administration in Eastern Illinois University. She completed the Seminar for Historical Administration in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and received several local and national awards for her work in museums and history. She is married and has three adult children. The town of Freetown Village is a symbolic community representing many of the predominantly African American settlements scattered throughout Indiana during the post-Civil War years. The residents of Freetown Village are composite characters of the approximately 3,000 men, women and children identified on the 1870 Indianapolis census.