The event will cap a weekend of activities and will be a moment of pride for parents and family members of local students who have excelled over the first semester of this school year.
Dream Keepers awards will be presented to all minority students in Cleveland and Bradley County schools (between the seventh and 12th grades) who have maintained at least a 3.0 grade point average for this first semester.
The Dream Keepers Awards program is sponsored by the Bradley County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the 100 Black Men of Bradley County organization and Lee University.
Evangelist and Lee assistant professor of accounting Ingrid Hart is the keynote speaker for the event.
The program will begin at 7 p.m. in Lee University’s Conn Center. There will also be musical entertainment provided by the Lee Evangelistic Singers.
Lee faculty members are also honoring MLK Day through special classroom lectures Jan. 16 and 17.
Monday’s concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Laney at mlaney@leeuniversity.edu or call 614-8229.
There will be other events during this year’s MLK celebration prior to the Monday evening concert at Lee. The theme for the weekend is “Remember! Celebrate! Act!,” and “A Mission Still to be Fulfilled!.”
Organizers of this year’s program say the mission is to ignite a spirit of service, action and achievement.
The celebratory weekend gets under way at 9 a.m. Saturday with a free breakfast at the Bradley-Cleveland Senior Center on Urbane Road near the Cleveland Family YMCA.
There will be entertainment by Phylicia McCastle, Clayton Mason and award-winning tap dancer Damon Gillespie. The Trinity Praise Team and Jamaal Reynolds will also participate in the entertainment.
The breakfast (and entertainment) is free, but attendees are asked to bring five canned food items for the Cleveland Food Bank.
The weekend celebration continues on Sunday with a 4 p.m. community worship in the new Lee University Chapel at the intersection of Ocoee and 11th streets. The guest speaker will be the Rev. Steve Caudle, pastor of Greater Second Missionary Church in Chattanooga.
The worship service will include the music ministry of Billie Blair, Shirley Purifory, Demetrius Ramsey and the Agape Center AOH Church of Athens.
