Cleveland Orchestra, City of Cleveland, in cooperation with GCP, announce winners of 2010 Dr. M.L. King Jr. Community Service Award

Friday, January 15, 2010

Award recognizes an individual, youth, and organization that have positively impacted
Cleveland in the spirit of the teachings and example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Cleveland, Ohio—The Cleveland Orchestra and the City of Cleveland, in cooperation with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, today announced the recipients of the 2010 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award, which recognizes an individual, a youth and a business or organization that have positively impacted Cleveland in the spirit of the teachings and example of Dr. King.

Theodore J. (Ted) Horvath will receive the award for an individual, Ebony Summers will receive the award honoring a youth, and The Presidents’ Council will receive the award honoring a business or organization. The recipients will be honored at the Orchestra’s 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert on Sunday, January 17, 2010, at 7 p.m. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson will present the awards. Honorees also will receive an engraved award commemorating the recognition, as well as special subscription packages to Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Severance Hall.

Since 1996, The Presidents’ Council has been improving the status of minorities in Northeast Ohio. Led by 14 chief executive officers of African-American-owned-and-operated businesses in Greater Cleveland, this organization performs vital service throughout Northeast Ohio by advocating for educational excellence, furthering economic opportunity, and promoting organizational diversity and inclusion. The Presidents’ Council serves the community through many programs, including:

  • The PC Scholars Program, which annually selects a group of sophomore students from the Cleveland Municipal Schools to receive additional, specialized education and mentoring.
  • Furthering economic opportunity for minorities through its Emerging Entrepreneurs (“EE”) program, which assists minority business enterprises by taking African-American entrepreneurs through a year of rigorous business leadership training in Baldwin-Wallace College classrooms and in the community.
  • Conducting a study on regionalism in Northeast Ohio, in its concerted effort to promote organizational diversity and inclusion. The study resulted in a comprehensive, 300-page report, "Regionalism: Growing Together to Expand Opportunity to All," which can be viewed at www.thepresidentscouncil.com

During his working years as an attorney with the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and even more so since retirement, Theodore J. (Ted) Horvath has been a creative and tireless advocate for using the arts to improve the educational opportunities, life experiences, and job skills of disadvantaged young people. His major effort in those fields has been his strong support of the Eleanor B. Rainey Institute, where he has served for well over 50 years as board member, board chairman, and trustee of the endowment.
Rainey Institute, now in its 105th year, teaches instrumental and choral music, dance, visual arts, theater, and a wide variety of other disciplines, all of them available at relatively low cost to students from preschool to high school. The school teaches young people the habits of responsibility, courtesy, punctuality, and strong work ethic, and the students come to think of it as a second home.

Ebony Summers is a senior at Jane Addams High School, where she serves as president of the Key Club – the oldest and largest national service program for high school students. Her initiatives as president include recruiting students to participate in a community beautification day, as well as raising money and organizing students to participate in Cleveland’s first suicide prevention walk.
Both in and out of the classroom, Ebony demonstrates a tireless and selfless work ethic. She spearheaded her school’s Penny Wars program, encouraging students to donate pennies from their own pockets to raise more than $500 for local charities. Ebony has organized a volunteer campaign for the Cleveland Food Bank and started a drive to collect winter clothing for needy students at Sterling Elementary School.  She has been accepted into The University of Toledo’s College of Health Science and Human Service program, where she will begin next fall.

Nomination Process

Members of the Greater Cleveland community submitted nominations through The Cleveland Orchestra and the Greater Cleveland Partnership. A committee of seven community leaders reviewed the nominations and selected the award recipients. Committee members are: Robert P. Madison, chairman and CEO, Robert P. Madison International, Inc., also a trustee of the Musical Arts Association and chair of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Community Relations Committee; Andrew Jackson, senior vice president, Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), and executive director, Commission on Economic Inclusion; Eugene Sanders, CEO, Cleveland Metropolitan School District; Vernesha Boone representing Kevin Conwell, Cleveland City Councilman, Ward 9; Valarie J. McCall,  chief of government fffairs, City of Cleveland; Stanley Miller, executive director, Cleveland Branch NAACP; and Marsha Mockabee, interim president and CEO, The Urban League of Greater Cleveland.

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