Клуб «Клаймберс» из Нью-Берна проводит гала-вечер для сохранения исторического здания библиотеки и наследия

The Climbers Club of New Bern is celebrating their 105th anniversary and the 79th anniversary of the West Street Colored Library Building this year by holding a gala fundraiser to preserve both the physical building as will as its history. According to the New Bern Historical Society, the New Bern Climbers Club was established at the home of Carrie Rhone Smith in 1921 by nine African American women who sought civic engagement and a community that included all the people of New Bern. The club is now affiliated with the North Carolina Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. Members of the club would organize educational programs, host authors, hold historical presentations, support local residents in need, provide Thanksgiving meals for seniors, donate toys to charities and raise money through community projects and contests. The West Street Colored Library was an institution created during segregation to provide Black residents of New Bern with access to books, education and information. Beginning in 1936, Charlotte S. Rhone played a central role in the effort to establish the library, and, after years of fundraising it opened on June 8, 1947. The library closed in 1973 following the expansion of regional library services, and its trustees transferred the building to the Climbers Club. The organization transformed it into a cultural and educational center and library’s board of directors chose to rename it the Charlotte Rhone Cultural Center, honoring the woman who made the library possible. According to the N.C. African American Heritage Commission, Rhone was the first African American women in North Carolina, and among the first in the entire United States, to become a registered nurse and was the first African American social worker in Craven County. Rhone was a lifelong civic leader, entrepreneur and operator of the Rhone Hotel with her sisters in New Bern and a tireless advocate for social welfare. Today, the Climbers Club continues her legacy and honors her example through scholarships for the youth of Craven and Jones counties, educational programs, historical preservation and charitable giving. Recently, in 2023, the club helped place a new headstone at Rhone’s grave in Greenwood Cemetery. The club’s 105th anniversary gala celebration is titled “Legacy Reloaded, Continuing to Build,” and it will be held on Friday, Oct. 9 from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Flame in New Bern. Tickets are $65 per person, and the event has a semi-formal dress code that requests guests wear outfits with purple and gold accents if possible. Anyone interested in attending can call the Climbers Club of New Bern chapter president, Nanette Cobb, at 252-497-0610 to order tickets and to ask questions about the club, its history or the event. “Our goal has been to create a closer bond of unity in the community,” Cobb said. “And we will continue lifting as we climb.”