Every five years, the National Charleston Day Organization, also called the Charleston Day Club, brings their annual Labor Day weekend reunion here.
How fitting!
Although the club and the reunion were started by former residents of Charleston, Mississippi, living in Chicago, it has evolved greatly over the course of its 45-year history to incorporate hundreds of individuals spread among nine cities where NCDO has active chapters: Atlanta, Georgia; Charleston, Mississippi; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; and the newest chapter in Marietta, Georgia.
Members of the organization, often under the umbrella of individual or joint chapters, engage in many philanthropic activities both in their own communities and here in Tallahatchie County.
They sponsor an annual turkey and winter coat giveaway in Charleston around Thanksgiving, conduct or lend financial and other support to a variety of programs and activities, and basically seek out opportunities to be about the business of doing good works.
Starting Friday, we expect to see hundreds of new and/or returning faces attending the various festivities planned during the reunion, which is more formally called a conference. One estimate places the number of out-of-town guests who may visit the city over the three-day weekend, continuing through Sunday, at 2,000 to 3,000.
We welcome all of these Charlestonians, including those who were born here, those who may have relatives still living here, or those who just want to stay in touch with their family’s Tallahatchie County roots.
What a wonderful organization!
