A LEGACY CONTINUED
MLK Awards to honor volunteerism, breaking barriers, hunger relief
Two volunteers in Annapolis who worked tirelessly during the coronavirus pandemic to help feed more than 150,000 people.
The first Black woman to serve as Maryland speaker of the House of Delegates.
A Severn woman who has worked in quiet, determined ways for 30 on civil rights and social causes in Anne Arundel.
Diana Love and Amy Marshall, Adrienne Jones and Delorma “Dee” Goodwyn are among the 13 people who will be honored Jan. 15 at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner, the first time in the event’s 33- year history that it will be held online instead of in person.
Love will receive the Peace Maker Award for herwork as founder of theWest Annapolis Pop Up Pantry. Together with community partners, she raised more than $ 100,000in one month to provide food and aid for coronavirus crisis response. The Peace Maker Award also will go to Marshall, who supported the pantry by offering her short- term rentalproperty as a storage and distribution site.
Love and Marshall have focused relief efforts on members of the community who’ve lost their income because of the coronavirus pandemic and who do not have access to federal aid such as unemployment, stimulus checks, or loans.
This pantry has supported more than 50,000 families and 150,000 individuals across nine months. Each weekend, the pantry hosts a food drive that serves roughly 315 families and 1,400 people. Partnering with Center ofHelp, Annapolis Moms, and West Annapolis Business Affiliation, Love and Marshall have worked nonstop to collect food and funds to help families in need.
Together with dozens of local women, as well as community partners, the effort focused on hand- delivering food, diapers, toys and much more to families in need.
Jones will receive the Courageous Leadership Award. A delegate since 1997, she served as Speaker Pro Tempore in the Maryland House of Delegates for 16 years. Jones and chair of the Capital Budget and Education and Economic Development Subcommittees. The Baltimore County
delegatewas selected as speaker in 2019.
Goodwyn is a recipient of the Dream Keepers Award. She has served on the Annapolis Human Relations Committee, the Anne Arundel County Personnel Board and is a founder of the Caucus of African American Leaders. She is active with the Racial Equity inMedia Consortium, a group of elected officials, religious leaders, and organizations that promote racial equity in the media.
Speakers this year will include Anne Arundel CountyExecutive Steuart Pittman. Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley; U. S. Rep. Anthony Brown, Orphans Court Judge Vickie Gipson, Anne arundelNAACP President Jacqueline Allsup; and Christine Davenport, chair of the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee. Other awards this year include: Pittman is the recipient of theMorris H. Blum Humanitarian Award. The award recognizes his work before being elected in 2018 with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the Retired Racehorse Project. But the committee also cited hiswork to engage communities across the county andpractice transparency and data- driven policymaking.
Dr. Erin Snell is the recipient of theDrum Major Award. She is the executive director of the Annapolis nonprofit Charting Careers, which works to break the cycle of poverty by supporting children and their families through mentoring and college and career preparation. She also serves as co- founder and co- chair for the Collaborative of Nonprofits Serving Children and Youth in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.
Barbara Arnwine is the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award. She is president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition and is internationally renowned for contributionsonjustice issues, including the passage of the landmark Civil RightsAct of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Arnwine’s is also the board vice- chair of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and serves on the board of directors ofMomsRising and Independent Sector.
Attorney Daryl Jones, is a former twoterm member of the Anne Arundel County Council. Hewas the first African- American male and the second African- American to be elected to that body. The Severn resident he is chairman of the board of directors for the Transformative Justice Coalition, a national voting rights organization. He has been active in organizing, mobilizing and energizing voters in Georgia.
Vincent Leggett is the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award. He is president and CEO of Leggett Group USA, an Annapolis- based consulting firm. He is th founder of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, which shares the legacy of African American achievements in the maritime industries and advocates for the Bay’s cultural and environmental preservation. He is a board member of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and former chair of theWiley H. Bates Legacy Center. Leggett is a former president of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education and CEO of the Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County and theHousingAuthority of the City of Annapolis.
Dee Strum is the recipient of the Drum
Major Award. Strum served two terms as president of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, where she worked with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and amendments to the Voting RightsAct of 1965.
Michael Sears is a recipient of the Drum Major Award. He is the director of Leadership Innovation at the Boeing Leadership Innovation Laboratory, Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U. S. Naval Academy. He is a graduate of the academy and, served as aMarine infantry officer. He earned a Juris Doctorate from Stanford University. a former tech company CEO venture capitalist.
Midshipman First Class Madeleine Cooke is the recipient of the Drum Major Award. Originally from Maryland, Cooke and her family ultimately settled in New York City, where she graduated from St. Saviour High School in Brooklyn. Cooke is the president of the Midshipman Black Studies Club, which works to empower future leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Walter Vasquez is the recipient of the Alan Hillard Legum Civil Rights Award. Born in El Salvador, Vasquez later moved to Miamibefore ultimately settling inAnnapolis. There, he opened Sin Fronteras, a Mexican- Latin American restaurant with locations in Annapolis and Glen Burnie. He is an advocate for greater Hispanic and multicultural representation in Annapolis government and economic planning. This month, Vasquez opened Annapolis International Market, an international grocery store which he hopes will help stimulate cultural growth for his shoppers and the community.
The Annapolis- based
Martin
Luther
King Jr. Committee Inc., founded in 1988, hosts two major events each year, the annual Fannie Lou Hamer Reception in October honoringwomanof different racial backgrounds who have made contributions to the community, state and nation. The second event is the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Program held in January to honor those local citizens whose leadership in civil and human rights has helped keepDr. King’s legacy alive.
The awards program will air online at 6 p. m. and conclude with a viewing of the award- winning short film, “The Dream Revisited: Civil Rights In Perspective,” followed by a virtual discussion of local leaders and activists, “Is Dr. King’s dream being nurtured in Anne Arundel County Today?”
Access the program at mlkjrmd. org City of Annapolis Television ( local access) on channel 99/ 100 for all Comcast subscribers and on channel 34 for all Verizon subscribers. For Anne Arundel County cable networks, viewers can access the program on channel 38 for all Verizon subscribers and channel 98 for all Comcast/ Broadstripe subscribers.
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Awards Program in Anne Arundel County was founded in 1988 by then Alderman Carl Snowden. Designed to pay homage to the memory of Dr. King, the program honors those whose deeds, words, and actions have helped keep Dr. King’s legacy alive. The programis a reflectiononthe best thatAnne Arundel County has to offer.
TheMLKJr. Committeehas placed three memorials to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. inAnneArundel County, fundedby private donations. For more information, write to MLK Jr. Committee, PO Box 371, AnnapolisMD21404; call 443- 871- 5656.