KING AWARD TO HONOR COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS

Although she was given Cape Girardeau's Martin Luther King Jr. Award in 1994, retired schoolteacher Juanita Spicer is reluctant to compare herself or her work to the life and work of Dr. King.

Spicer is one of only seven people given the award since it was established in 1992. Her understanding of the award is that it is given to a person whose life reflects some of the themes spoken of and lived by King.

"It's an honor," she said. "I can't compare myself in any way to Martin Luther King. What I do is something small, but I'm there."

Spicer received the award in recognition of her work as the founder of the Edward M. Spicer Tutorial Program, named in honor of her late husband, an administrator at Southeast Missouri State University who died in 1991.

The tutorial program continues today at St. James AME Church with 25 students.

"I've always thought there was time for everybody in the community to jump in and help," Spicer said.

It is that spirit of volunteerism and service that is the main criterion for the award, said Michael Sterling, president of the Cape Girardeau NAACP.

"We decided to give the award to honor people who weren't getting recognized. We never recognize people who are out there volunteering," Sterling said. The award was established in 1991.

Community service was crucial to the award because community service was important to King, said Sterling, himself a 1993 recipient of the award.

"It's not the man, it's the philosophy we want to focus on," he said. "After the ceremony we can't go back to business as usual, but we must put (King's) philosophy to use on a daily basis," he said.

Each year since 1992, the award is presented to a person active in the Cape Girardeau community who has demonstrated the ideals of justice, freedom and social betterment through nonviolence.

Individuals from the local NAACP and Ministerial Alliance determine who will receive the award.

The award will be announced tonight as a part of the seventh annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration held at 7 p.m. at the St. James AME Church, 516 North St.

The featured speaker at the celebration will be Dr. Frank Nickell, whose address is "From Equality to Outreach: America's Civil Rights Movement."

The new Martin Luther King Jr. Flag will be displayed and explained. Also, Dr. K.P.S. Kamath will present an introduction to the nonviolent philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi.

PAST RECIPIENTS

Past recipients of the King award are:

1992 -- Costella Patterson

1993 -- Michael Sterling

Ferd Sturm

1994 -- Juanita Spicer

1995 -- Charlotte Wade

1996 -- Marie Walker

1997 -- Fred Pennington