Dr. Wesley Wilson, President and Executive Director of the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation, spoke at the Abingdon Ruritan Club’s May 8 meeting. He gave the history of the school (which is located on Route 17 in Hayes) and how current interest has grown for improving and renovating the building. The group’s mission is to preserve, maintain and administer assets in perpetuity exclusively for charitable and educational purposes related to the African American experience, including but not limited to, the legacy of the Woodville Rosenwald School, and Rosenwald schools generally. Wilson elaborated on the contribution of Gloucester’s own T.C. Walker who met with Julius Rosenwald in Chicago and was personally responsible for raising over half of the funds to build Rosenwald schools and a teachers’ home in Gloucester. Of these seven Gloucester structures, Woodville is the last remaining and of the original 5,300 schools across the South, there are fewer than 300 remaining today. While much has been done to renovate Gloucester Woodville, more funds and volunteer work are need to totally bring it back to its original structure. Wilson is shown here with Mary Lou Privott, Abingdon Ruritan Club program chair.