After a 10-year furlough, Largo will once again host a celebration of African-American Heritage at the campus at Florida Botanical Gardens and Heritage Village.
The Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation (FBGF) and the Pinellas Alliance of Black School Educators (PABSE) are partnering on the event.
Vernon R. Bryant, executive director of FBGF recalled the glory days of the former celebration before funds and resources dried up.
“We thought it was a great event and a great activity. So, this year we put our heads together and restarted it. We renamed it Pinellas African American Heritage Celebration, keeping it in line with what we had done as a celebration of culture,” Bryant shared.
He credited Shauné Ferguson, PABSE’s president-elect, with helping to make this year’s celebration come to fruition. “She just said to me, ‘Let’s do this.’” And she has really been a driving force behind it,” Bryant noted.
Ferguson quickly agreed when Vernon said they should bring back the African American Heritage celebration to the Botanical Gardens.
Ferguson went back to PABSE to see if they would get on board with the event. “For PABSE, it was almost a no-brainer; this is what we do. We support students; we support the community around Pinellas County. I think they were just ready and excited to do something positive that brings the whole community in. As soon as I brought the idea, everyone was 100 percent on board.”
She noted that the Largo community has been very interested in bringing this event back to the Florida Botanical Garden, adding the support they’ve received has been just tremendous. Bryant also stated that the event has several new sponsors.
The director of the Gardens shared that there will be several locations on the campus that will be involved, including two outdoor stages where School Board member Caprice Edmond and Maranda Douglas, a candidate for the Clearwater City Council Seat 4, will give keynote speeches that day.
