Several area citizens will be recognized when the Roanoke Chapter NAACP holds its 19th Annual Citizen of the Year Banquet on Friday, May 5 at the Holiday Inn, Tanglewood, 4468 Starkey Rd. SW.
The 2017 recipients are: Arts- Bernadette Brown, producer/director, Black Nativity; Business- Dorothy Owsley, President/CEO, Transitional Living for Women; Education- Jeff May, Education/Motivational Speaker and organizer of historic Youth Debaters; Education Youth–Kai Washington Brown, Sr. WFHS, 4.GPA, ACT-SO Gold Medalist; Humanitarian:.Janice Rudd, Grass Roots volunteer, Roanoke Citizen of the Year; Media- Ava Rose, 11-year-old Journalist/Live Video Interviews, 3-Questions; Medicine – Dr. David Thaler, retired Navy Commander/physician at Salem VAMC; Religion – Rev. David Jones, pastor, Williams Memorial Baptist Church; and Life Achievement: Claudia Whitworth, owner/editor/publisher, and son, Stanley R. Hale, Journalist/Advertising, The Roanoke Tribune.
Recipient of the Rev. R.R. Wilkinson Memorial Award for Social Justice is the Rev. Dr. Johnny Stone, pastor of Hill Street Baptist Church, community activist.
Winner of the President’s Award is Kenai Hunt, a WFHS senior; President, Roanoke NAACP Youth Council and Student Representative, Roanoke City.
Tickets for the event (@$65 ea.) may be purchased at The Roanoke Tribune, 2318 Melrose Ave., NW (343-0326); at WTOY Radio Station, 2206 Melrose Ave, N.W. or by calling Mrs. Cleo Sims, Freedom Fund chair, at 540)353-2159.
