Awards bestowed at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration

ADRIAN — Community leadership and service in Lenawee County was honored Monday during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Lenawee County Community Celebration and Dinner.

The event is held annually on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The sold-out program Monday at Adrian College's Tobias Center recognized three college students and two longtime community advocates. It also included a keynote address from a Detroit-area educator, youth mentor, and diversity and equity consultant.

“Building the Beloved Community: It Starts with Me” was the theme of the program and the title of Jay Marks’ keynote address.

Marks, who has a doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction from Wayne State University, has been an educator since 1991, when he began his career as a special education teacher at Northern High School in the Detroit schools. He is currently the diversity and equity consultant with Oakland Schools, the intermediate school district in Oakland County, where he supports the professional development needs of the 28 school districts within Oakland County.

He has been mentoring youth since 1989 and his work focuses in the area of equity when it comes to anti-racism, social justice, cultural competence, conversations about race, culturally responsive teaching, educating Black males, and student engagement.

As keynote speaker for Monday's program, Marks tied quite a bit of what he was preaching to the words and the actions of King, who is regarded as one of the foremost leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Marks spoke about the ways in which Lenawee County citizens can transform themselves and others into “beloved community members” who fight daily for peace, equity and justice for all people. The three steps anyone can take to be the change they wish to see in the world, he shared, are awareness and acceptance, accountability, and action.

Without love for others, he said, communities will not be able to move forward as a beloved community. People are at their best when they are unified out of love, he said.

“How do we move forward without love and without our work being centered and anchored in love?” he asked.

It is his belief, Marks said, an important aspect of holding ourselves accountable is the acknowledgement that the foundation of the U.S. is rooted in inequity, injustice, racism and white supremacy. But people have the ability to make necessary changes in their lives so that they do not exhibit such negative dispositions. He challenged those in attendance to be an ally for social justice and to stand alongside those who are fighting for their basic human rights.

“You can't change the world until you change yourself. And in order for the world to change, the hearts and minds of people in the world need to change. We need to know who we are, so we can be a better version of ourselves, as we fight for peace, equity and justice,” he said. “In order to build this beloved community for peace, equity and justice, we can't afford to be ignorant of our own culture and identities, nor the cultures of those around us.”

Marks’ speech was the final part of Monday’s program. Prior to his address, five awards were presented.

The Student Service Awards were presented to Adrian College junior Ayodele Adeniye; Carrianne Ausmus, student at the Jackson College/Lenawee Intermediate School District Academy; and Walter Turner Jr., senior at Siena Heights University. The Student Service Awards date back to 1989 and have been awarded to students at Adrian College and Siena Heights.

Jackson College award winners have been recognized since 2014.

Adeniye is studying business marketing and has a 3.9 grade point average. It was in his sophomore year of college when he transferred from the University of Alabama-Huntsville to Adrian College. Hockey has been an integral part of his life, his biography in the evening's program said, and when he arrived to Adrian’s campus, he joined the Bulldogs men’s NCAA ice hockey team, which went on to capture the school’s first NCAA Division III national championship. In his free time, he enjoys visiting local schools and speaking with kids in Lenawee County as well as skating with Adrian youth teams.

Ausmus, meanwhile, strives to “lift others up,” it was shared during the presentation. She works to find solutions when problems arise, while practicing and promoting empathy for others. She is involved with the Lenawee YOUTH Council, the Lenawee Community Foundation board of directors, Cascades Humane Society and JC/LISD student ambassador program. She also is an LISD Tech Center student leader.

Turner, from Gibraltar, is majoring in psychology with a minor in behavioral science. He is a defensive back on the Saints football team and was described by coach Matt Kohn as a strong leader and as someone who takes education seriously. He has been on the university's football team since he arrived to college in 2019. Turner is also a McNair Scholars Program researcher and ambassador and a member of the Psychology Club and the Psi Chi National Honor Society at Siena Heights. His favorite quote from King, he said, is, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Receiving the 2023 Community Service Award, which dates back to 1990, was lifelong Adrian resident Ben Negron.

Negron’s biography compiled by the Martin Luther King Jr. committee was quite lengthy, all of which highlighted his advocacy throughout Lenawee County for more than 40 years.

“Ben’s work in the community has been an extension of the work his parents have been doing, helping others through their church ministry since 1978,” the committee said.

Negron is the founder and former executive director of HOLA, Hispanics of Lenawee Alliance, which played significant roles in sponsoring health clinics, which included free diabetes and vision and heart health wellness checks, for the underserved students and family members enrolled at Adrian Public Schools.

Negron serves on several local boards and is the store director of the Adrian Meijer. In 2010, he was named Citizen of the Year for his work in the community, and in 2021, he received the Lenawee Legacy Leader award for his community service in Lenawee County.

While noting he was honored and grateful to receive the award Monday, Negron said he has a lot of work still to do to catch up with the likes of the past award recipients.

“These are some very big footsteps, and I am going to try to fill the inside of them. I know I can’t. My foot cannot fit into those big ol’ shoes,” he said. “These are people who have done some amazing things in our community and I will endeavor to get in there and continue to do what I can.”

The final award of the evening was the Lifetime Community Achievement Award for 2023, which was presented to the Rev. Deanne Henagan. Much like Negron, her biography of leadership, volunteerism and activism through Lenawee County was multiple pages.

A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Henagan had a career in teaching that spanned more than 37 years. She retired in June 2004 from the Lenawee Intermediate School District after working with speech/language/hearing-impaired and autistic students ranging from 4 years old to the 12th grade from all over the county. Even in retirement, she continues to work as a private consultant and conducts teacher and parenting workshops on speech and language development, impairments and intervention strategies.

“She has been a persistent advocate for phonological awareness and its necessity in establishing the foundations for reading skills,” the committee said.

Henagan has received numerous awards during her time in Lenawee County, which date back to the early 1990s. She relocated from Louisiana to Adrian in 1967 and was hired by the LISD for a one-year period, which ended up becoming many years.

In 2016, she was ordained as a local deacon, and in 2018 she was ordained a local elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church by Bishop John Franklin White. Her dedication to the Christian faith dates back to her younger years, the committee said.

“God has enabled me to do this,” she said. “I’m just a person from Louisiana. And I should say, I’m grateful to God and grateful to my parents. I was born into a family that it was service; service to the family, service to the community — you didn’t have a choice. It was like you were born into giving of your service to those who needed it, whatever race, color or creed.”

Because she was born and lived in Louisiana, helping people there was no different from helping people in Adrian or elsewhere, she said.

“It was engrained in my system,” she said. “...I came here to do service. To service my students to help them be the best that they could be. Along with the students, I could help everyone else because I had been trained. It was in my blood.”

Quoting from King, she said, “If I can help someone from along the way, then my living will not be in vain.”

Special music performed by Siena Heights University students Adam Baker and Katai Harris also was part of the program. Madison Middle School student Morgan Byles read from the poems “Martin Luther King Jr.” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “Fury and Faith” by Amanda Gorman.

It was announced the 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. celebration for Lenawee County will be Jan. 15 at Siena Heights University.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Awards bestowed at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration