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Credit Union of Texas Partners Partners with Local Girl Scout Gold Award Project to Create a Black History Mobile Museum
Plano, Texas 3/2/2022
In honor of Black History month, the Credit Union of Texas (CUTX) paired up with the Creator of an online virtual Black History Museum to unlock the history of the city. The mobile Black History Museum exhibit debuted on February 26th, 2022, at the CUTX - Plano Branch. The event included over 30 artifacts from the Plano African American Museum (PAAM) and the virtual museum created by former PISD student and Gold Award Honoree, Zara Jones through support from local resources like the Plano Public Library, Board Members of PAAM, and North Texas Historians.
This partnership comes a year after Jones launched PlanoBlackHistory.org to give students access to local history online. PlanoBlackHistory.org, the virtual home of the former Plano Black History Museum, is a combination of multiple exhibits that celebrates the Arts, History, Heritage, Culture, and Contributions of African Americans in North Texas. The museum has six displays spotlighting the new narrative of local history and includes the time capsule exhibit of the Plano African American Museum, which was in the historic Douglass Community before closing its doors over a decade ago.
During the debut of the Black History Mobile Museum, students, families, the business community, local non-profits, civic leaders, educators, and history enthusiasts explored & celebrated the rich history of the city by viewing the time capsule exhibit. "Our desire in the community is to create partnerships through collaboration and we're excited to have the community celebrate Black History with us!" said Desmond Bibbs, Vice President of Community Engagement at Credit Union of Texas.
The event also included an oral history exhibit, live panel, the Jubilee Exhibit curated by Heritage Farmstead, a walkthrough of the online virtual museum, and a meet & greet with local CUTX branch management. "I'm so happy and excited that we're celebrating Black History in the branch today! You're going to learn a lot and see artifacts dating back to the 1800s too!" said Lin Adi, from Credit Union of Texas. Notable attendees and organizations included Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Maria Tu from the City of Plano, PISD Board Member Angela Powell, Plano ISD Elementary Teacher of the Year Kulsum Mzee, President of the Plano International Festival President Graciela Katzer, Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, The Heritage Farmstead Museum, Plano Chamber of Commerce, NAACP of Collin County, The Texas Pool and Plano's first Black Police Chief Ed Drain and members of the first Black families that settled in Plano.
About Dallas Professional Women
Dallas Professional Women (DPW) is a member-based platform for women professionals and media members with a commitment to support women-led, women-owned and women-friendly businesses, events and initiatives. DPW is a sister city alignment with Houston Professional Women. Last year DPW members referred $2M in business referrals and raised over $150K for local area nonprofits through grants & partnerships.
About CUTX
For almost 100 years, Credit Union of Texas has provided financial services to members throughout North Texas. In the last year, CUTX was recognized with the Communities Foundation of Texas “Be in Good Company” Seal of Excellence, voted the Best Credit Union in DFW by the readers of The Dallas Morning News and named the winner of the Torch Awards for Ethics, Better Business Bureau Serving North Central Texas. For more information about CUTX, visit www.cutx.org.
Digital Assets: Video Recap Zara Jones Creator of Virtual Museum