27 community volunteers to be honored at SKCA Breakfast

By John Sharp

A total of 27 community volunteers, government employees, neighborhood organizations, outstanding student leaders, successful school programs and businesses that are helping to improve the south Kansas City area will be honored at the annual South Kansas City Alliance Community Awards Breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday, October 19, in More Hall at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 11822 Holmes Rd.

Although last year’s event at Avila University was a sellout, $20 tickets for the all-you-can-eat hot breakfast buffet are still available and may be ordered online at the SKCA website www.SouthKCAlliance.org or by mailing a check to SKCA, P. O. Box 7914, KCMO 64114.

This year’s honorees include six KCMO fire fighters and police officers, including two female officers from Metro Patrol who valiantly put their own lives at risk to save a mother and her infant child from what could have been serious bodily injury or death. 

Honorees also include several neighborhood activists and community leaders who have volunteered their time – in some cases for decades – to improve south Kansas City neighborhoods and to help others.  I was grateful to be selected by the SKCA Board to be a recipient along with K.B. Winterowd – a longtime leader in the Center Planning & Development Council – for an Alvin Brooks Lifetime Service Award.  

I also was pleased to see this newspaper honored as a recipient of the Good Corporate Citizenship Award for the Telegraph’s efforts to keep the south Kansas City and Grandview communities informed about proposed government policies and programs and new developments that directly impact our quality of life.

The other honorees are:

• Good Corporate Citizenship Award – North American Savings Bank
• John Sharp Outstanding Government Service Award – Michael Shaw
• Judy Swope Good Neighbor Award – Beth Boerger, Debra Davis, Denise Hart & Bobbie Proctor
• Outstanding Community Service Award – Rev. Chauncey Black, Trina Dodson & Rosilyn Temple
• Outstanding Educational Achievement Program Award – Center High School First Responder Program, Creating Opportunities for Ruskin Eagles & Grandview High School Academies
• Outstanding Neighborhood Organization Award – Hickman Mills United Neighborhoods & West Plaza Neighborhood Association
• Outstanding Public Safety Service Award – KCMO Police Officers Lauren Billinger, Sarah Holland & John Roach and KCMO Fire Dept. Captain Dennis Glasgow, KCMO Fire Dept. Asst. Division Chief Reggie McKeithen, KCMO Fire Dept. Paramedic Meredith Stalker & KCMO Health Dept. Environmental Public Health Program Manager Joe Williamson
• Outstanding Young Achiever Award – Jaden Epanty, Ruskin High School; Josephine Mosby, Center High School; & Jabari Strother, Grandview High School