CLEARLAKE, Calif. — On Thursday, the Lake County NAACP branch bestowed a unique honor on a local business.

NAACP Board members, led by Rick Mayo, the branch president and co-founder, presented Lamont Kucer and Andrew Pierson of Foods, Etc. in Clearlake with a Silver Life membership plaque.

Mayo was joined by Bessie Bell, branch treasurer and Legal Redress Chair; Lynette Kirkwood, branch executive member; Aqeela Markowski, life member and past president; David D. Smith, the Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference Area director; Ida Johnson, Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference assistant secretary; James Black, NAACP member; Greta Zeit, NAACP Lake County Branch secretary; and Andrew Kucer, Lamont Kucer’s father.

Not in attendance was Dennis Darling, Foods, Etc.’s founder, who was out of town.

The NAACP credited Foods, Etc.’s record of embracing diversity in its hiring and community practices.

Mayo said Foods, Etc. is the NAACP branch’s only life membership business organization, but they have other businesses that are members, including Lakeview Market in Lucerne and the Red and White Market in Clearlake Oaks.

He said there also are 29 total life members of the branch.

Bell, who said she’s been shopping at the store since 1979, pointed out how the store hires young people who are still in school, giving them an opportunity to have a job. And she pointed to their welcoming of people of all ethnic backgrounds.

“They don’t care who you are,” she said, and they treat people kindly and are responsible.

She said they are grateful for the business’ service. “This is a good store.”

“We’re happy to help and to be part of it for the next 30 years,” Lamont Kucer said.

Johnson, whose father, Gilbert P. Gray, worked with Mayo to found the local branch in 1982 as well as the branch in Santa Rosa, where he was a respected community member, said the work of the NAACP takes place at the local level, noting the local members are the “worker bees” and inviting people to take part.

“The work starts here,” she said.

The event took place just days ahead of the NAACP’s anniversary on Sunday.

The organization was founded on Feb. 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln.

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