NIAGARA FALLS — Bloneva P. Bond, a community activist and one of the most influential leaders of the African- American community in this city in recent decades, will be honored at a tree-planting ceremony at 2:30 p. m. Saturday at Robbins Drive and South Avenue in Hyde Park.

The former Bloneva Pride was born Sept. 11, 1918, in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Saturday is the 92nd anniversary of her birth. She died in 2004. In 1943, she moved to Niagara Falls with her husband, Harwood Bond, who died in 2000.

In addition to Saturday’s public oak-tree planting ceremony, a group of Bloneva Bond’s friends plan to dedicate a granite monument to her memory.

When she was presented a Martin Luther King Achievement Award in 1997, Don J. King, president of the School Board at the time, called her “a living classroom [who] was the go-to person in the African- American community in Niagara Falls. Sensitivity was her strong point.”

Bond was the first African- American woman elected to the Niagara Falls School Board and was a past president of the Niagara Falls Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

She was a founder of the New York State Community Action Program and served on the Niagara Coalition, the former National Council of Christians and Jews, the United Way of Niagara Central Budget Committee, Niagara Community Center Scholarship Committee, Congress of Racial Equality, Niagara Falls Council of Churches and People for Progress Committee, Niagara Chapter of the American Red Cross Minority Task Force and the Niagara Falls Centennial Committee.

Bond was appointed by then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to both the state Health Council and the state Health Planning Commission. She also worked closely with the Girl Scouts of America and was honored by Niagara University with a doctor of humanity degree.

The five-member Niagara Falls City Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to pay tribute to Bond’s community service.

“Her outstanding volunteer achievements have enhanced the quality of life for all who knew her,” the resolution says.

rbaldwin@buffnews.comnull