Mayor to honor several at event

1/17/2003

Five people, two businesses, six organizations, and a church will be honored by Mayor Jack Ford during the city's Martin Luther King, Jr., 2003 Unity Celebration on Monday at the University of Toledo's Savage Hall.

The recipients will be Toledo Municipal Court Judge C. Allen McConnell; Baldemar Velasquez, of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee; Bill Copeland, recently retired Lucas County commissioner; the Rev. John E. Roberts, pastor of Indiana Missionary Baptist Church, and WilliAnn Moore, president of the Toledo branch of the NAACP.

Cobham Family, Inc., and the Sojourner's Truth newspaper are the two businesses being honored.

Social service organizations include Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Greater Toledo, the Greater Toledo YMCA's Youth Opportunities Program, Greater Toledo Urban League, YWCA of Greater Toledo, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Kitchen for the Poor, and Seagate Food Bank.

CedarCreek Church, a nondenominational church in Perrysburg, also will be honored.

Jimmy Gaines, moderator of the mayor's awards committee, said winners were selected because they had “distinguished themselves not only in business or their profession, but also for rendering selfless community service.”

He said the committee also looked at groups and organizations in the immediate area and didn't limit its awardees to Toledo.