Seniors are celebrated for Black History Month
Ernest Sanders
Published: February 15, 2012
A local resident enjoys a free hot breakfast at the Senior Breakfast and Blues event for seniors at the Thurgood Marshall Chicago Public Library.
Ernest Sanders
In its 8th year of celebrating the senior residents in the community, the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GADC) hosted another free and successful Breakfast-n-Blues jam session at the Thurgood Marshall Chicago Public Library. This event was scheduled as a means to celebrate local senior residents for Black History Month.
The library was filled with nearly one hundred seniors who ate a delicious meal catered by Flavor 180. The menu included hot scrambled eggs, freshly baked biscuits, smothered potatoes and turkey links. To top off this meal, GADC also provided water, orange juice, and hot coffee.
Accompanying the delicious meal, all guests were treated to the soulful blues sounds of Johnny Drummer and the Starliters. As tradition would have it, Drummer and his band jammed to some old blues classics with lyrics like: I'm Just a Mississippi Boy, Pack my Suitcase and Move on Down the Line, Everyday I Have the Blues, Hoochie Choochie, I'm Gonna Let it Shine, Squeeze Me Like a Lemon and Let my Juices Flow Like Rain, and lastly Do Right Like Somebody Do and Get me Some Money Too.
The Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation's (GADC) Breakfast and Blues for seniors got a crowd of folk dancing (in a Soul Train Line) to the sounds of People's Choice, "Do It Any Way You Wanna," performed by Johnny Drummer and the Starliter Blues band.
Ernest Sanders
A few seniors were so filled with the spirit of the day, they led Drummer and his band in a song and praise!
Drummer closed out the celebration with a Soul Train Line to commemorate the late great Don Cornelius. Seniors, volunteers, and GADC staff all danced to the 1975 pop classic by People's Choice, "Do It Any Way You Wanna."
This day would not have been possible without the partnership of the Thurgood Marshall Library chief librarian, Jan Brooks, the GADC staff and numerous volunteers including Howard University Alumni, Westcott Elementary School, the Garden City Lodge #59, and Illinois State University.
Click here to see photos from the day.