ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County NAACP is gearing up to host its annual Freedom Fund Dinner at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Market at Ebbert Farms.

Belmont County NAACP President Jerry Moore II said the event is the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year. He said that this singular event is how the organization can afford all of the activities it hosts throughout the year.

“We do a lot of different things in the community, and whatever we rake in from the Freedom Fund Dinner, that’s our budget for 2026,” Moore said. “So if it’s a good dinner and a good year, we can continue to do what we have been doing and maybe even add a few more things. If it’s a bad year, then we’re not going to be able to continue what we’ve done in the past.”

He added that some of the money goes to helping the Bridgeport Police Department with its National Night Out event, as well as to job fairs, community swims, health fairs and various community events.

Saturday’s event will be a change of pace from past events, due to the guest speaker being a physician, Dr. Stacey Brown-Brocklehurst.

Born in Powhatan Point, Brown-Brocklehurst completed medical school at Wright State University School of Medicine. She earned the Gold Humanism Award. She also earned the Best Teacher Award during her residency at UPMC St. Margaret.

She then spent the past 14 years serving the Ohio Valley community, where she continues her practice by working at WVU Medicine facilities in St. Clairsville and Shadyside.

“We’re switching gears a little bit on our topic. This year’s topic will deal with medicine from a doctor’s perspective,” Moore said. “Being the current climate of America right now, we kind of just want to stay away from politics. We just want to have a good dinner and want to bring somebody in that everybody can relate to.”

He added that regardless of a person’s political beliefs, everybody is worried about their health or medicine.

“Nine out of ten people always have questions for their doctor after they leave that doctor’s visit. So she’s going to give everyone some insights and answer questions about different testing and flu and COVID shots,” Moore said. “She’s also going to give you an avenue to where if you have questions about those vaccines, interact with the elderly or the young, you could ask those questions there.”

He said his goal is to completely stay out of the political realm during the dinner. Moore added that he wants the focus of the event to be on the NAACP.

The event will also be providing lifetime achievement awards to four deceased Belmont County NAACP members: Gary “Doc” Blanchard, Frank Lindsey, John Stewart and Jack Cera.

As a young adult in the 1960s, Blachard participated in sit-ins at Louie’s Hot Dogs on 10th

Street in Wheeling, where blacks were only allowed to order food from their take-out

window and not permitted to dine inside the restaurant, according to information provided by the NAACP. Those efforts led to Louie’s changing its “whites-only dine-in” policy to permitting all people to eat inside the restaurant.

In the 1980s, Blanchard was elected president of the Belmont County Chapter of the

NAACP, where he fought for the advancement of people of color, ensuring that their skills

and abilities were not overlooked because of their skin color.

His commitment to equality led him to successfully lobby to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a holiday observed by the village of Bellaire and Bellaire Local Schools. He also worked with Belmont County Community Action Commission to help blacks get employment with the county, not based on their skin tone, but based on their merits.

Blanchard died in 2022.

Lindsey served as the Belmont County NAACP president from 1986-93. During his time as president, Lindsey fought to have the body of Robert “Mudbone” Frazier exhumed from an indigenous burial in Monroe County to provide a proper burial in Linwood Cemetery, according to a news release.

Lindsey also served as the president of the Ohio Valley Jaycees organization, where he was the driving force behind coordinating the construction of the basketball court under Ohio 7 at Bridgeport in the 1970s.

Lindsey died in 2010.

Stewart was the descendant of free black former slaves who settled on Black Oak Road, Flushing, before the Civil War.

In the early 1950s, he served as a corporal during the Korean War.

In an era when the U.S. Army was still slowly integrating, he faced racism not with submission, but with quiet strength and a firm sense of justice, the release notes. He was trained as a combat construction specialist. Stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was assigned to the Special Troop Command and the 78th Engineering Battalion, earning the National Defense Service Medal for his service.

After an honorable discharge, Stewart returned to Flushing. He then helped shape what would become Barkcamp State Park.

In 1973, he met and later married Betty Jane Cole, and formed one of Belmont County’s first biracial families. Together, they raised a son, John Jr.

Stewart died in 2021.

“John Stewart was truly one of a kind. He is among the finest men I have ever known. His trust was hard to earn. Nevertheless, once I had earned it, he was like a second father to me,” attorney Michael P. McCormick said.

Lastly, Cera served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1983-96 and again from 2011 through 2020.

Throughout the three decades that he served in the Ohio legislature, he represented families from Belmont, Monroe, Noble, Jefferson and the northern part of Washington counties with distinction. He also served as the minority whip for the Democratic Caucus in 2016.

In the early years of his career, he was instrumental in starting the Roadwork Development Fund, which directed gas tax funding to economic development for the first time, and for the expansion of the flood warning system following the deadly flood of 1990 in Shadyside.

Cera died this past July.

To purchase tickets to the dinner, call 740-310-6894.

The fundraiser will have a cash bar and food catered by Around the World Gourmet.