Annual Lincoln Luncheon

For the past 15 years the Putnam Underground Railroad Education Center or PURE has gathered at the Lincoln Luncheon to celebrate the end of slavery in our country.

The luncheon helps to raise money for the PURE Center to be able to accomplish its many goals. PURE’s President, Liesta Walker, said the center’s goal is to educate people about the history of slavery and the role Zanesville played in it.

“It is just our way to come together and to lift up the pure center, to make sure people understand that we’re still in business of educating the community and ourselves as well on our part, as Zanesvillians to what we did to promote the abolition of slavery,” Walker said.

Each year PURE invites a guest speaker to the luncheon. The speaker this year was Dr. Michael Bullock who is the pastor at Hands of Faith Church. He described speaking at the luncheon as a great privilege.

“It’s always an honor,” Bullock said. “What it means is that we get to share in some of the history of not only the greater scheme of things as far as the march and as far as freedom, but the local history here in Zanesville that had a major part in the underground railroad.”

While it is a fundraiser, Walker said the donors can give as much or as little as they wish. She feels that it’s much more important to learn from the lessons of the past.