Sunday evening, Charles Brown, President of a 70-year-old North Jersey organization of Black men called the Nor-Jer-Men, made a surprise call to the New Jersey Orators President. He offered to fundraise for New Jersey Orators without asking for anything in return—a rare, and exciting, proposition.
However, as NJO President Eloise Samuels learned more about the mission of Nor-Jer-Men, she realized the offer was a sincere charitable donation. They are neither a mentoring group nor a fraternal organization but are a social group of 30 Black men with a 70-year history of charitable giving. With a donation of $20,000, they recognized New Jersey Orators’ efforts to enhance the leadership, verbal communication skills and confidence of students from 7 to 18 years of age. NJO is now a recipient of a long, yet little-known, history of black philanthropy in New Jersey.
Every three years, Nor-Jer-Men hosts a fundraiser to provide a sizable financial donation to a non-profit or charitable organization that they have researched and chosen. This year, New Jersey Orators emerged from their selection process, which is organic yet thorough. For instance, Nor-Jer-Men President Charles Brown relayed to his membership that he recalled an event where one of our New Jersey Orators delivered a presentation. He was impressed by the composure of the young man and mentioned the organization to his board. Coincidentally, one Nor-Jer-Men member’s wife is an Orators coach, and another member had two children enrolled and participated in the Orators program. That member spoke highly of the value that the oratorical program brought to his children and so many others learning the communication skills to mature and succeed. Nor-Jer-Men did further research on the New Jersey Orators over a period of several months before receiving final affirmative approval from the entire board.
With that decision, Nor-Jer-Men hosted a formal dinner dance for the benefit of the New Jersey Orators on Saturday, January 19, 2019, at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany. At their public, yet intimate, award ceremony, they donated $20,000 to New Jersey Orators for their oratorical and literacy programs. Eloise Samuels, Founder & President of the New Jersey Orators, and an Easton, Pennsylvania Chapter Orator, Noah Louesy, accepted the award on the organization’s behalf.
For additional information, please contact Eloise Samuels, Founder & President, New Jersey Orators, Inc. [esamuels20@gmail.com] or visit the Orator’s website at www.oratorsinc.org.