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Guest Name
Ms Dione Sims and Ms Opal Lee
Guest Occupation
President and Founder of Unity Unlimited, Inc and Ms Opal Lee
Guest Biography

Dione Sims is the President and Founder of Unity Unlimited, Inc., a non-profit organization focused on producing educational activities and opportunities to support unity and understanding. She has produced the Annual Juneteenth Fort Worth Celebration with her grandmother Dr. Opal Lee since 2015, engineered the Opal’s Walk campaign for Juneteenth national holiday recognition, developed the Your Voice Unleashed Fine Arts Workshop and Concert unity programming, and sponsored the Opal’s Farm urban farming project that seeks to reduce food insecurity and provide a means for second chance training and employment. She was present at the White House signing of the bill that established June 19 th of every year as a federal holiday. Mrs. Sims served as the Founding Executive Director of the National Juneteenth Museum working to highlight the message of freedom that Juneteenth represents.

Ms Opal Lee Known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," was present on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act bill that established June 19 or “Juneteenth” a federal holiday. Ms. Lee is the oldest living board member of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF) started by the late Dr. Ronald Myers to have Juneteenth declared a National Holiday. At 90 years of age, she started her walking campaign and in 2019 she launched an online petition campaign that garnered over 1.6 million signatures to continue the crusade for holiday observance.