SCHEDULED EVENTS: BARBARA BLANCHARD, WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY NAMED AWARD WINNERS

Barbara Blanchard and Washington Elementary School are the 1999 recipients of the eighth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award. The award will presented during the community celebration tonight.

The celebration service begins at 7 o'clock at First Presbyterian Church, 235 Broadway. The event is free and open to the public.

Blanchard, who is recovering from surgery at St. Francis Medical Center, will not attend the service to receive her award. Lorna Mueller, who has taught at Washington school for 23 years, will accept the award for Blanchard.

Washington principal Pamela Barnes will accept the school's award.

Each year since 1992, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 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. Recipients receive a plaque for their accomplishment, and their names are inscribed on a plaque hanging in the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Past recipients include Costella Patterson, Michael Sterling, Ferd Sturm, Juanita Spicer, Charlotte Wade, Marie Walker, Fred Pennington and Debra Mitchell-Braxton.

People from the local NAACP and ministerial alliance determine who will receive the award.

Blanchard has been linked with Washington Elementary School since she first attended elementary classes there. After becoming a teacher, she returned to the school to teach first, fourth, fifth and sixth grades from 1961 until fall 1993 when she was appointed principal.

She served as principal until retiring in 1997.

Blanchard has been a member of the Missouri State Teacher's Association, Cape Girardeau Teacher's Association, the Network for Women in Elementary Administration, the National Association of Elementary Principals and the Missouri Association of Elementary Principals.

Her list of honors included a second-place honor for Outstanding Teachers Award in 1982 and a Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Educator Award in 1998.

Blanchard was nominated for the honor by David Giles, assistant superintendent of the Cape Girardeau School District. Giles said Blanchard was deserving of the honor because her efforts to improve educational opportunities for her students.

Giles wrote in part: "Mrs. Blanchard has set the example for how elementary teachers and principals practice the profession. She believes that her job is to prepare children for the democratic way of life, in which worth and happiness of the individual is supreme. She believes that all children, regardless of background, deserve the same opportunity to attain this goal."

The community celebration is co-sponsored by the Ministers Coalition for Progress and the Cape Girardeau Ministerial Alliance. The featured speaker at the celebration will be the Rev. Dr. Rhymes Moncure, senior pastor of Missouri United Methodist Church in Columbia.

Moncure, a native of Oakland, Calif., has had extensive training in biblical studies, church administration, conflict resolution and evangelism.

TODAY8 a.m.14th annual Memorial BreakfastShow Me Center* Speaker is Judge Leslie Isaiah Gaines2 p.m.Gospel celebrationWest Park Mall Venture court* Featuring Black Student Fellowship Mass Gospel Choir and students from local schools7 p.m.Community celebrationFirst Presbyterian Church,235 Broadway* Eighth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award will be presented.Speaker is the Rev. Dr. Rhymes Moncure.