Staff Reports
MOULTRIE — The 34th annual observance of The Vera Hollis Blackshear Education Fund, Inc., will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, at Mother Easter Baptist Church, where the Rev. Freddie L. Castle is pastor. The Male Gospel Choir will render the music, under the direction of the Rev. Darren Roberson. Pastor Emeritus of Mother Easter Baptist Church, the Rev. E.H. Hopkins will preside at the observance and former recipients will participate.
Castle, who was recently installed as the pastor of the church, will preach the service. A native of Houma, Ala., he received his Bachelor of Science degree from Grambling State University in Grambling, La., and a Master of Divinity degree from Morehouse School of Religion at ITC in Atlanta, Ga.
The Vera Hollis Blackshear Education Fund was established in memory of Vera Hollis Blackshear, an honor graduate of Moultrie High School. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Fort Valley State College, a Master of Science degree from Hunter College in New York and was pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the time of her death. As an educator, religious and civic leader, Blackshear sought to positively influence her students and others.
She was the wife of the Rev. Frank Blackshear, younger sister of Ozie “Jackie” Adams and Mary Hollis Glenn, and niece of Virginia King, Ernest and Leatha Snelling and Isaac Hogan.
The memorial scholarship fund’s contributors’ tax-deductible donations have helped more than 90 high school students with their college expenses for the past 34 years.
The 2008 recipients are Matthew Jamal Gibson, who is attending Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala., and Jasmine Renee Bryant, who is attending Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga.
Gibson is the son of Wiley and Mary Gibson and the grandson of the late James and Helen Stancil, the late Robert Gibson and Adell Washington.
He attended school in Colquitt County and was active in the band for six years, where he played bass and trombone.
He is a member of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, under the leadership of the Rev. Alfred Jones. As a member of the church, he served on the Junior Usher Board, in the youth choir, and as junior superintendent for the church Sunday school.
Currently, he is a student of veterinarian medicine at Tuskegee University.
Bryant is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bryant Jr.
She is studying and pursuing her major in biology and preparing for a career as a gastroenterologist.
An honor student, she was very involved in her school and church activities.
