The Pike County chapter of the NAACP will hold its only fundraising event of the year, the 2017 Black Tie Banquet, on Saturday.

This year’s featured speaker will be Keith Beauchamp, the New York producer of the documentary “The Untold Story of Emmitt Louis Till.” The documentary helped lead to the reopening of Till’s murder case.

The event will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Trojan ballrooms located upstairs at the Trojan Center on the Troy University campus.

The fundraising event will be the first for newly elected president Dianna Bascomb, who took the office in January.

Bascomb explained that she wants the NAACP to be an organization that is involved heavily with local officials and the community.

“My approach is to extend a hand to all of our elected officials and community leaders to work together as a team to improve our community overall,” Bascomb said. “We want to come together and be a part of the decision making progress instead of after the decision is made. We want to be engaged. We want a seat at the table while the decisions are being made. We’d like to be consulted on how we can build a team with our elected officials.

“If our citizens see we are working together and there’s a lack of dissension –that builds relationships. I’m interested in us working together to improve our community.”

Bascomb was born and raised in Banks and said she wanted to return to the community and bring something back to it.

“I’ve always had a desire to come back home and give back to community that gave so much to me while I was growing up.”

Some of the other events the Pike County NAACP has coming up are two voter registration drives, an event to bring law enforcement officers and the community together and a summer camp for school-aged children.