YWCA Volunteers Honored During MLK Day Events

CHARLESTON - For the past 40 years the YWCA of Greater Charleston has organized and led the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the Charleston area.

This year the organization took advantage of a new presidential award to honor 99 of its longtime volunteers.

"We became aware of the Drum Major Award, so we looked at all the volunteers that had served five years or longer and we came up with 99 names," YWCA Executive Directo Kathleen Rodgers said. "There are a lot of people involved so it wasn't hard to come up with 99 names."

Rodgers and the Y staff learned of the award from Charleston native and Associate Director of the Corporation for National and Community Service and Acting Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Clay Middleton.

"In 2006 (former Pres. George W.) Bush started the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, in 2008 when (Pres. Barack) Obama was elected he looked at what previous administrations did and decided to continue the Volunteer Service Award and he wanted to add something new," Middleton said. "In January 2011 it was the first time you had the Drum Major for Service Award."

The award draws it's name from a speech King made in 1968 called "The Drum Major Instinct. Near the close of the speech which reflected on the impact that Jesus Christ has had on humanity and what King would want said about himself at his own funeral King said:

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say. (See the full text of the speech here.)

Named for King, the award honors people in communities around the country involved with Martin Luther King Jr. Day services, Middleton said.

"I am very familiar with the Y's programs, they've been doing this celebration (of King) for 40 years and I thought that the Y and all the volunteers should be named Drum Majors for Service," he added.

Part of Middleton's job is to promote the Drum Majors for Service Awards, so he said he was thrilled when the Y agreed to nominate its volunteers for the award. Last January Middleton's office honored 700 people with Drum Major awards, and that number will be even higher this year, he said.

The Y volunteers receiving the honor on Sunday during the MLK Tri-County Ecumenical Service at 4 p.m. at Morris Street Baptist Church at 25 Morris St. in downtown Charleston hail from all over the tri-county area, Rodgers said.

The full list of recipients includes:

James Island area

Emogene Backman

Dorothy Johnson

Rev. Bernard Gadsden

Rev. Alex White

Mary Heyward

Albertha Williams

West Ashley area

Rev. Deborah P. Carter

Isabell C. McWilliams

Rev. Timothy Simmons

Rev. Charles Green

Edisto Island area

Francine Morrison

Mrs. Beulah J. Washington

Marie Washington

Dorothy J. Smith

Henry N. Murray, Jr.

Betty Ann Clarke

Hollywood/Ravenel/Younges Island

Leola Alma Nesbitt

Victoria Judge Forrest

Annie L. Brown

Mary B. Porter

Anna Polite

Francine Nelson

Dana Butler

Rev. Robert Hodges

Rev. Keith Cochran

Perlinda Rhodan

Jossephine B. Youngblood

Shawn Hamilton

Kenyatta Seward

North Charleston area

Francis Guest

Deacon Cohen Graham

Victoria Abram

Sonji M. Murry

Deacon Paul Griffin

Ruth M. Waring

Kimberly Z. Reese

Charleston City area

Herrnine P. Stanyard

Albertha C. Lee

Delores M. Fizz

Earline Sanders

Cynthia McCottry Smith

Shana W. Middleton

Dorothy M. Bolton

Lois Simms

Mount Pleasant area

Earthalee S. White

Margaret S. Brown

Betty S. James

Ruth R. Jenkins

Martha G. Steed

Johns Island area

Rev. Robert L. Capers

Rev. Mary Stoney

Ecumenical Service

Rev. Leonard O. Griffin

Father Dow Sanderson

Rev. Alma Dungee

Essie W. Simmons

Mary Alice Mack

M.L. King Parade

Herman Allen

Rev. David Riley

Major Jerome Taylor

Willie Brooks

Bowens Middleton

Lala Fyall

Salley Burnett

J. Denise Cromwell

Ashley Keyes

Christopher Wright, Jr.

M.L. King Breakfast

Cecelia Gordon Rogers

Elease Amos-Goodwin

Dorothy Harrison

Dr. Luther W. Seabrook

Rev. Randolph Miller

Theresa Hilliard

John Scott

Gloria Bell

Vanessa Turner-Maybank

Leroy Lewis, Jr.

M.L. King Volunteers

Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr.

Sen. Robert Ford

Rep. Wendell Gilliard

Mark Tanenbaum

John Bleecker

Ellen Dressler Moryl

Kathy Jackson

Barbara Vaughn

Deboran Matthews

Mary Ann Sullivan

Dr. Augustus D. Robinson, Jr.

Gerry Kaynard

William "Bill" Saunders

Armand Derfner

Bernard Fielding

Paulette Robinson

Gloria Gantt Wilford

Kristin Kurie

Charlie Cyr

Edie Blakeslee

Michael Whack

Clay Middleton

Tyrone Smith