Newark Mayor Cory Booker lends personal magic to help raise thousands at UNCF Mayor’s Masked Ball
theGRIO REPORT - Newark Mayor Cory Booker knows how to grab a headline...
Dr. Lomax further explained why uniting with mayors for greater educational outcomes in society is so important.
“Mayors are central now to education,” he said. “You talk to a mayor two decades ago, and they said their number one issue is crime and economic development. Today, if you ask a mayor what his number one issue is, it’s education: ‘If I have an educated workforce in my community, that’s going to reduce crime, that’s going to bring economic development.’ Education is the engine for economic development.”
He also praised Mayor Booker for his eager participation. “We’ve got a mayor here who’s been focused on education from day one,” Dr. Lomax said. “It’s been a part of his human capital strategy, but it’s also been part of his economic redevelopment strategy.”
A party with a purpose with today’s brightest stars
Stating that each ball raises between a “quarter of a million and a million dollars,” Dr. Lomax explained that the money helps students “not only get to college,” but also “complete college.”
For the price of a ticket, masked revelers are treated to lavish food and drink, the fun of hobnobbing with celebrities, and first class entertainment, while helping foster educational access.
The Newark Mayor’s Masked Ball featured actor Craig Robinson, currently starring in the Tyler Perry-produced movie Peeples, in addition to Extra entertainment reporter A. J. Calloway. CBS This Morning co-anchor Gayle King was the honorary chair.
Chrisette Michele on the importance of education
Singer Chrisette Michele, who wowed the audience with her soulful sounds as they dined at tables decked with towering center pieces, summed up the likely feeling in these luminaries’ hearts at being part of this undertaking.
“It’s important,” she told theGrio of the need to promote wider access to college. “My parents are educators. I’m college-educated, and I’m not sure what my parents would have done without their master’s degrees, because of where they came from, because of the lack that they had in their communities. So it’s incredibly important for us to get our education. Anything that can help us pay for that type of tuition, I’m glad to be a part of.”
Mayor Booker says education will be a priority as U.S. Senator
Mayor Booker also described being there as a “thrill,” as his participation helped draw attention to this UNCF ball program, which will be continuing across America.
Having “unofficially” announced his run for the U.S. Senate, according to The Daily Beast and other sources, Booker told theGrio that if he is elected he will continue making educational access a priority as a U.S. Senator.
“Everything that I’ve done or will do, whether it’s in politics or not, will be focused on education,” the mayor said while walking briskly into the ball room to help raise thousands.
“It’s been the transformative force in my family, and for me personally. It’s something that should really become a fundamental aspect of our nation — where every kid, no matter where you’re born, no matter the zip code, has abundant pathways towards academic success. We’ve got to get away from being a country that has more of an educational apartheid, where kids born in certain zip codes are afforded certain opportunities, and [for those] born in others, opportunities are not afforded them. That is really about the idea of fulfilling America.”
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