Correspondent photo / Nancilynn Gatta Da’Najah Stella of Warren was one of the recipients of an Inspiring Minds scholarship during the organization’s 20th anniversary gala on Saturday at the nonprofit’s Elm Road headquarters in Warren. Stella participated in the celebration by introducing each of the eight courses of the gala’s meal. She will attend the University of Akron in the fall majoring in business data analytics.

WARREN — Inspiring Minds’ 20th anniversary gala — with a theme of gratitude — celebrated past accomplishments and looked forward to future endeavors to help empower youth to reach their full potential.

The initial remarks, made by an emotional Inspiring Minds founder and CEO Deryck Toles, reflected on the momentous occasion at the nonprofit’s headquarters on Elm Road in Warren.

“I want to thank everybody for coming,” he said. “You all could be anywhere and doing anything. There are so many events going on, and there are a lot of things going on with your loved ones. The fact that you shared your time, please know that you are appreciated by me, our organization and our community.”

7 17 Credit Union was acknowledged as the first official title sponsor for the Inspiring Minds gala.

Sherri Bercheni, the banking institution’s first vice president of retail delivery and operations, discussed her commitment to the nonprofit.

“Through the sessions of financial literacy that I taught, my commitment to Inspiring Minds became deeper. The more knowledge I poured into the youth, the more I wanted to give,” she said.

Bercheni mentioned that since its inception, Inspiring Minds has helped more than 7,000 students. She jokingly mentioned that it was 7,017, a sign that “this relationship was meant to be.”

Guests were dressed in formal attire to enjoy an eight-course menu celebrating food from around the world.

Toles said, “This year’s format is a little bit different. Normally, we are at round tables and we eat for about an hour-and-a-half, and we have a short presentation at the end. It is different this year. I wanted to go back, old school, since we are celebrating 20 years. How many people used to go to grandma’s or great-grandma’s and she had a big table? On Sundays you would get together and talk about love, talk about life, family, community, the problems they wanted to solve, things they had coming up. This year we wanted to welcome you to our homes. Welcome to our family.”

Inspiring Minds’ high school students served the meal to 500 guests. Toles asked for patience since this was a new experience for the teens.

“The meal begins with an African hand washing ceremony. This is important to us. As we traveled, our kids experienced this. It is about welcoming people into your home. It is about gratitude. It is about saying, ‘thank you.’ It is a tribute to you and a tribute to 20 years,” Toles said.

He introduced Inspiring Minds senior and Inspiring Minds Alumni Scholarship winner, Da’Najah Stella. Prior to serving, Stella gave a description of each course and mentioned if it was served family style or individually. Courses included dishes from Trinidad, the southern United States and Toles’ Nana Judi Toles’ wings. The meal ended with African tea.

Kyra Washington received the second 7 17 Credit Union scholarship.

Representing AVI Food Systems, Patsy Kouvas, who works with the high school students at the nonprofit, informed the crowd that the menu AVI produced “was chosen by Deryck for this occasion.”

The 2026 class of students were recognized, as were longtime volunteers.

Carol King, a volunteer since the beginning and mother of Shawn’a King, said it is amazing how much the nonprofit has grown. Her daughter was a member of the first graduating class.

The initial meetings at McDonald’s have grown into after-school programs, career days and travel exposure trips inside the United States and overseas.

This was the largest fundraiser of the year and current IM students participated. They ushered guests to their tables ,sold IM merchandise and 50/50 tickets, and handed out programs alongside volunteer Carol Gordon.

“I volunteer because this is such a worthwhile organization. They help so many youth,” Gordon said.

Inspiring Mind graduates were a large part of the evening’s presentations. Keyaunna Elzy was one of the first students who participated in the nonprofit when they met at McDonald’s. She graduated from the University of Toledo and is an Internal Revenue Service employee while her daughter, Kierra, is now an Inspiring Minds student.

“I truly don’t know where I would be or what I would do in life if it was not for Inspiring Minds,” Elzy said.

Masters of Ceremonies were Inspiring Minds graduates Shawn’a King and Stephon Ford. King is a cloud engineer for Amazon in Maryland and Ford lives in Philadelphia and works in the science field.

Toles mentioned that the gala food was a communal experience, but it took community support to help the nonprofit reach 20 years. Representatives of the Warren City School District, Kent State University at Trumbull and Warren Mayor Doug Franklin were recognized for their support, as were members of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley.

As donation envelopes were handed out at the end of the event, Toles said people could give to certain impact areas such as education or travel exposure. He discussed his initial foray into nonprofit and fundraising as well as talking to members of the CFMV’s Trumbull branch and how they could help. They were IM’s fiscal agent.

“I had a conversation with them not too long ago and they said they wanted to do a match of $20,000 for our 20 years,” Toles.

Warren and Marie Anderson of Warren offered to match the fundraising at the gala with an additional $20,000.

Toles ended his talk with “the people who helped him inspire the work.” That included former coaches, friends, business people and his grandmother, Judi Toles.

In the past 20 years, besides the Warren location, Inspiring Minds’ expansion includes Youngstown, Columbus, Dayton, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and New York City.