Panel awards 11 for humanitarian work
Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006
The Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission presented 11 awards Friday night in recognition of Arkansans ’ humanitarian efforts shared by King.
The Salute to Greatness Community Service Awards Gala concluded the two-day Drum Majors Leadership Conference at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
Recipients of the individual awards included :
Ozell Nelson, who opened and operated the Arkansas Boxing Club in Little Rock in an effort to give boys an alternative to gangs and violence. He is credited as the guiding force behind Jermain Taylor’s rise to the Middleweight Boxing Championship.
The Rev. Leon R. Massey, pastor of Roanoke Baptist Church in Hot Springs. He has served as the vice president and president of the Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association. Dr. Eduardo R. Ochoa Jr., a pediatrician and assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and chosen by the readers of El Latino — a Spanish newspaper in central Arkansas — as best pediatrician. Ochoa, who is assistant dean for minority affairs at the University’s College of Public Health, completed with a colleague the Arkansas Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities study, the first comprehensive study of health disparities in Arkansas.
Beth Gladden Coulson, who has helped raise millions of dollars for various organizations over the years. She is currently chairman of the finance council for the Democratic Party of Arkansas. Recipients of the Act of Courage Award included :
Robert C. Brown, president of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, who has led the institution to record enrollment, initiated 27 new programs of study and has overseen a $ 90 million building project. Lillian Green, a Russellville resident, who led an effort to rename a street on the campus of Arkansas Tech University for Martin Luther King Jr.
Doyne Construction Company in North Little Rock was recipient of the Business Award.
The firm, led by President Virgil Dexter Doyne, has received multiple small business and minority-group contractor awards.
Willie McGhee, an El Dorado City Council member who is director of the Boys and Girls Club, southeast unit, was recipient of the Volunteer of the Year Award.
The club targets youth who are at risk of joining gangs, abusing drugs, dropping out of school or having unplanned pregnancies.
James “Lil JJ” Lewis, a 15-year-old Little Rock native and comedian who has appeared on the Tonight Show and Showtime at the Apollo, was recipient of the Youth Achievement Award.
John Deering, a Little Rock resident who sculpted “Testament,” a monument of the Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School in 1957, was recipient of the Drum Major award.
Deering is the editorial cartoonist of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Willie Hinton, a Little Rock city director who led the effort to open the Neighborhood Resource center at 3805 W. 12 th Street in Little Rock, was recipient of the Josetta Wilkins Courage award.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
