2019 Hats and Gloves Tea
The University hosted the community at its annual Hats & Gloves Tea on March 31 in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Center on campus.
Attended by 300 people – mostly women with a few brave men – the 2019 event was held under the theme of “Women with Passion, Power and Purpose.”
For images from the tea, click on the below link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/48216028@N03/sets/72157679668843418/show
As an event that annually recognizes women of achievement and community involvement, the 2019 Ladies Hats & Gloves Tea honored the following three ladies:
Dr. Hanifa Shabazz – An elected member of the Wilmington City Council since 2004, Dr. Shabazz is currently the first-ever woman to serve as that body’s president. She has been critically instrumental in economic development initiatives that benefit low to middle income neighborhood in that city such as the Neighborhood Assistance Act, and the forming of pioneering community coalitions that encourage businesses to invest and partner in the municipality’s communities and thereby create jobs for its residents. She is a lifelong Wilmington native and resident.
Peggy Joyce Hunter Swygert – An alumna who graduated in 1962 from then-Delaware State College with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Mrs. Swygert enjoyed a long career in social work in the state of Delaware and elsewhere. As a military wife to Arnold Swygert, the couple and their children moved around to a number of different assignments in the U.S. and abroad, with their move back to Dover Air Force Base being their final assignment. While she later earned a master’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she and her late husband of 58 years remain devoted to Delaware State University through their involvement in campus events and their establishment of a scholarship that continues today.
Rev. Jean Wylie – A 1968 alumna of then-Delaware State College, Rev. Wylie is a lifelong educator, serving for 46 years as a teacher, assistant principal and principal in the Milford School District in Delaware. A native of Ellendale, Del., she is an ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and currently serves as the pastor of Bethel AME Church in Milford. Rev Wylie is currently also the president of the Milford Slaughter Neck NAACP and the Dover District Ministerium.
The Hats & Gloves Tea also featured an essay presentation by University student Kharrin Gale, enactment of scenes from The Color Purple by Ashlyn Moore and Shae Ross of the Delaware State University Drama Club, and a vocal musical rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
The Hats & Gloves Tea Committee was led by its Dr. Enid Wallace-Simms, chair, a Class of 1975 alumna and the emcee for the event; and Brenda F. Farmer, vice chair, University executive director of Ceremonies and Events, and an alumna from the Classes of 1999 and 2007.