For more than 20 years, The Brookhaven Trust has been actively fulfilling its mission dedicated to the arts and the history of Brookhaven.

With that goal in mind, the city’s historic and architecturally rich downtown has been a special focus of the Trust and its projects. So it was very appropriate that the venue for the organization’s annual “A Taste of the Trust” fundraising event moved downtown this year.

The Crossing, the recently opened event center on South Railroad Avenue, provided an appropriate setting for Thursday night’s food tasting, silent auction and live music program. The event not only provides the city with a gala social activity each year but also raises thousands of dollars annually to help fund the Trust’s projects.

Recipients of funding in the past year included a blues concert at Brookhaven High School and Copiah-Lincoln Community College in February, the Arts Council’s yearly art competition, an annual scholarship for a local Mississippi Scholars student to pursue college study in the arts and an ongoing grant program for downtown building renovations.

The grant program will pay one-half of the cost of painting a downtown building in colors suitable for the period in which it was built. The program, which has been in place for four years, was utilized most recently to repaint the Southern Pawn building on North Whitworth Street.

Other painting projects in the past have included the Brookhaven Outreach Ministries building at the corner of North Railroad Avenue and East Congress Street and the old Whistlestop Motorcycle Shop building, among others.

At present, Trust members are busy tabulating proceeds from last week’s Taste of the Trust and determining what projects will be beneficiaries of those funds in the coming months. And the Trust board is looking for suggestions from the community.

“We are open and receptive to the ideas people have,” Brookhaven Trust past president Rachel Powell said Saturday. “We are here for the community.”

To suggest a future project to the Trust board or to apply for a grant, contact Anna Smith, current Trust president, at (601) 757-1963, or relay your message through the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce at 601-833-1411.

We commend the Trust for the good work it is doing in Brookhaven, and we encourage community members to get involved by sharing their suggestions for how the organization can continue to pursue its mission.