Pictured are members of the Jamestown Human Rights Commission during January’s meeting. Submitted photo

The Jamestown Human Rights Commission is planning on sponsoring an event in February that it hopes will inspire unity in the community.

The commission is sponsoring a preseason game for the Jamestown Jackals basketball team on Feb. 24. At the game, the commission plans on having a table with all of the Human Rights Commission information available for the community. The commission is currently working on finalizing a logo, as well as a pamphlet that can be printed and handed out at the basketball game. Additionally, the Human Rights Commission is working to create shirts that each committee member can wear to the basketball game in order to advertise the commission’s mission in the Jamestown community.

“We have to get ready for that,” Human Rights Commission Chairman Uvie Steward Jr. said. “There’s some things we have to have in place. We have a lot of work to have completed by our next meeting.”

During last month’s meeting, Kayla Crosby, a member of the Human Rights Commission, asked that the commission consider sponsoring a preseason game for the Jamestown Jackals basketball team on Feb. 24.

“Since we don’t have any regular season games during Black History Month, I would like to have the theme of this preseason game to honor the black and African American Community,” she said. “I thought it would be great for us to advertise about the Human Rights Commission. Ultimately, I would really like to use this preseason game as a way to shine light on the culture that isn’t always brought forth in Jamestown and utilizing the platform of basketball to really bring the community together.”

While the Human Rights Commission could not vote on the proposal last month because it did not have a quorum present, each of the commission members present at the meeting expressed their support for the idea. Prior to January’s Human Rights Commission meeting, the members voted electronically to sponsor the event.

The Human Rights Commission also discussed how the group could contribute in a tangible way to the refugee resettlement efforts in the Jamestown community. While the commission is not able to make an official donation to an organization in the community, the commission asked Ben Haskin, associate corporation counsel, to see if they would be legally permitted to sponsor a financial effort to help refugees relocating to the area.

One of the Human Rights Commission members proposed that the commission “earmark” $1,500 to be used to provide Human Rights Commission sponsored boxes of cleaning supplies and personal items for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church to use for refugee work pending legal approval. The proposal was unanimously approved by the Human Rights Commission. The next step will be for the corporation counsel to legally approve the proposal.