Torch Club presentation to conclude lecture series

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Torch Club will have a dinner meeting June 21 at Pete’s Place Restaurant in Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

A social hour will begin at 5:30 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6. For reservations call 330-793-3072 or 330-792-7351.

After dinner the speaker will be Andrea Wood, who will present “Youngstown as a Poster City for the Industrial Midwest.” The presentation is the final entry in a series of lectures about the history and future of Youngstown presented by guest speakers to the club and leading up to the International Association of Torch Clubs 79th Annual Convention, which the Youngstown club will host.

The convention, June 24 through 27 at the Holiday Inn in Boardman, will feature the theme “From Rust Belt to Renaissance” and scholars and historians who will discuss Youngstown’s past, the changes it is undergoing and what those changes mean for the future.

Among the speakers at the convention will be Mayor Jay Williams; Dr. Rick Shale, YSU professor and former park commissioner; Sherry Linkon and John Russo, authors and co-directors of the Center for Working Class Studies at YSU; and Charles Darling, historian, author and radio host.

Convention guests will visit sites of historical and cultural significance, such as the Butler Institute of American Art, The Arms Family Museum of Local History, Mill Creek Park and Powers Auditorium.

One of the highlights of the convention will be a lavish Saturday evening affair at which the Paxton Award for the best paper of the year will be revealed as Torch members from throughout the United States and Canada look on.