Area residents, natives and former residents of Vicksburg who have moved to other cities will gather during the weekend to get reacquainted and remember old times at the 44th annual Vicksburg Homecoming.

People will get together Friday at Riverwalk Casino for a “get acquainted social” at 8 p.m., followed Saturday by a scholarship brunch at 10 a.m. and a dinner-dance banquet, both at Riverwalk. Events end at 9 a.m. Sunday with a farewell worship service at Trinity Baptist Church.

A total of 13 students from Warren Central and Vicksburg High schools will receive scholarships of $300 to $500, while six students will receive gift cards and medallions for finishing in the society’s essay and oratorical competitions.

The idea of the Homecoming, club president Willie Glasper said, “is to get people to come back home and establish businesses as well as support the community.”

He said members of the Homecoming Benevolent Club from, who live across the country, send donations that allow the club to help people in the community purchase medicine and pay utility bills, and award scholarships to local students.

“Here’s the unique thing,” he said. “When we had our chapters in Los Angeles and Chicago and Las Vegas, and we would go to these events, the main topic of conversation would be Vicksburg.

“You could walk from one group to the next, they’re all talking about Vicksburg. It was such a unique thing that Vicksburg has such a magnitude in the lives of the locals and those who have moved away. They still had that Vicksburg spirit.”

The Vicksburg Benevolent Homecoming Club began in 1975, when former resident Booker T. Wilson and Richard Dorsey returned to Vicksburg for Dorsey’s family reunion and developed plans for an annual reunion for in the city for Vicksburg residents and the benevolent organization.