- The Spark Awards 2021 is made possible in part by the following: - From our very beginnings in 1954, Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance has been built on the values of customer service.

Leading with integrity and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement and leading by example to power the good.

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of the Spark Awards.

- On behalf of the entire Champion Promotion team, we're honored to be a presenting sponsor of the Spark Awards.

Champion is proud to have helped design the custom award given to each of the honorees and to be a presenting sponsor since the very beginning.

We will continue to support this wonderful tradition.

- For over 50 years, Champion has been helping companies and organizations in Memphis and the Mid-South grow and expand their brands with branded products.

We can provide everything from printed and embroidered apparel to promotional items and custom awards, such as the Spark Awards.

Our commitment to our customers extends from being on brand on everything, to being a catalyst in our community.

We wanna congratulate all this year's honorees and thank them for making a huge impact in our great city.

Have a great holiday season.

- Additional funding for the Spark Awards is provided by Meritan, United Way of the Mid-South, by My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, My Town Miracles, and by SRVS.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way.

So we can learn and do the same.

This truth is the power behind this show.

I'm Jeremy Park, and this is the Spark Awards.

And here are your hosts, Tracy Bethea and Rob Grayson.

[audience clapping] - Hello and welcome to the 8th Annual Spark Awards.

I'm Tracy Bethea.

- I'm Rob Grayson.

And this has been an eventful and memorable year.

We've had many opportunities to see just how much we rely on the goodwill and generous spirits of our community to face and overcome the challenges before us.

- Now in the next hour, we'll present 13 awards from 4 categories.

Plus our Legacy Award, to honor a lifetime of service and giving back to the community.

- But before we begin sharing the stories of our honorees, let's hear from the man who keeps the spark shining all year long.

The CEO of cityCURRENT and host of the TV series, The Spark, Jeremy Park.

- It's hard to believe that we find ourselves still in the middle of the pandemic.

It's been a difficult period of almost two years that have been filled with countless challenges, tragic losses and humbling setbacks.

But we continue to press on with the strength of community and the hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Like many other events now we've produced this show as a hybrid with virtual interviews via Zoom and a small in-person ceremony to celebrate our honorees.

With so much darkness and negativity clouding the world around us, our mission is to power the good.

To reveal the light and to lift and inspire you by spotlighting some of the many organizations and individuals who continue to pour into the Mid-South and make a difference.

Over the last two years, we all have gained a deeper appreciation for connection, for community and for service and sacrifice.

This is our chance to honor those who continue to roll up their sleeves, give back and help others.

These up standers don't seek attention, but these community champions continue to work hard and give every day and we're a better city because of their efforts.

We're now into our 9th year of The Spark and our 8th year of the Spark Awards.

The Spark is our monthly television series on WKNO, which focuses on sharing good news, positive stories and lessons learned from those who are leading by example and serving in our city.

So we can see the good taking place in our community, be inspired and learn how to make an even greater difference ourselves.

The Spark Awards is our annual televised award show that's an expansion on our efforts to recognize and honor those who are doing the hard work and the heart work to make a difference.

It's an opportunity for you as the public to nominate the individuals and organizations in 13 categories.

And then for us to be able to share some of their stories in this special hour long broadcast.

Once again, we received an overwhelming amount of inspiring nominations, and we had the help of a very generous organization the Midtown Memphis Rotary Club, who read through each one and selected our honorees.

Let's now learn more about the Midtown Memphis Rotary Club and how the honorees were selected.

- The Midtown Memphis Rotary Clubs mission is to improve the quality of life in Memphis and the broader community.

We meet after work on Tuesday evenings in the annex building of the Southern College of Optometry on Madison Avenue.

Guests are always welcome.

We appreciate being asked to participate in the selection of this year Spark Awards.

Before selecting the winners in each category, we considered the nominee's philanthropic leadership, volunteerism and activism and impact within our 5 county Memphis Metro area.

We congratulate not just the winners, but all of the nominees who make Memphis a better place.

- Our Corporate Awards honor businesses that do more than mind their bottom line, they give back and lift up the community around them.

The first award in the Corporate Category is for companies with 100 or fewer employees.

Our honoree is a small online retailer born from its founders love of athletic shoes.

And it's grown through its embrace of its community and philanthropic causes.

This award goes to Grind City Kicks.

- Grind City Kicks initially was started to resell shoes, Jordan's, Yeezys and stuff like that.

From there, I wanted to be a little bit different than everybody else.

So I wanted to have it where it's some kind of community impact that we did instead of just, you know, selling shoes and making money.

So we started to do stuff like give shoes back to families that have lost loved ones due to tragedies.

As we did with the Vail family, her son was killed in a drive by shooting at his grandma's house.

As we did with Kam Johnson, he was, he got killed in a bus accident coming down from Dallas, playing in the football tournaments.

So we gave shoes to his mom.

So doing stuff like that.

And after that, I took over the company and then started to expand it even more.

So even going into sports leagues, sports organizations, doing different things with MICR, Memphis Inner City Rugby club.

Doing things with She Got Game, a women's basketball league that's here in Memphis.

He Got Game, another men's basketball league here in Memphis.

Doing things with American Cancer Society, given back to Breast Cancer Awareness, happy with the help of John Morant and Jaren Jackson signing the shoe and giving it to Tunica to raise more money for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Doing things with MAM, giving them jerseys and stuff that they didn't have, they couldn't afford because it wasn't in their budget.

So the MLK location, with the pandemic giving money back from last year, cause it was just a shocker for the whole world that everything was going on.

I felt that in terms of my company and my new found nonprofit organization, Grind City Cares.

Being able to use my platform to give back and donate a check to Neighborhood Christian Center.

For them to do more work in the community and provide more resources to people that are in need of it, especially that have dealt with COVID.

And we allow people to buy this shirt to give, for the proceeds to go back to victims that have dealt with the COVID.

I can't even remember how many people bought the shirt, but this was the first time that we had so many people around the country, not just in the city of Memphis, not just in the Mid-South area, that bought the shirt and was supporting, was tagging each other, putting everybody on Facebook and Instagram and all of social media.

And then we were able to give this check out to Neighborhood Christian Center, and it was just amazing feeling.

You know, we started as a reseller trying to get shoes and trying to resell to people in the community and get some money off of that.

To now having our first official shoe, it's just, it's just another speechless moment.

It's big, its for social awareness, it's for things is going on from this year and last year, and more people tell you all the time they support you, we love what you're doing and stuff like that.

But so when something like this is just, I'm truly honored.

[audience clapping] - That's founder Chima Onwuka.

- Accepting the award for Grind City Kicks.

[audience clapping] - Our 2nd award in the Corporate Category is for companies with 101 to 499 employees.

Our honoree is a Memphis based logistics office, managing shipments for their parent company and clients.

As a team, they have been passionate supporters of the American Cancer Society and its fundraiser, Relay for Life.

This award goes to Nucor Logistics Center.

- Nucor is North America's most diversified steel and steel products company.

Nucor Logistics Center is a division of Nucor corporation located here in Memphis.

Nucor Logistics Center serves as a resource for all of our divisions across the U.S. and helps them move product to and from their various customers.

In 2013, when the Nucor Logistics Center started up, we were approached by a group that was looking for some corporate development with the American Cancer Society.

Memphis didn't have a big presence in corporations participating in their annual events, and they visited with us at the Nucor Memphis location here in Memphis and were wondering if we would be interested in helping to support the American Cancer Society.

As a whole, Nucor corporation really encourages their divisions to jump into all events with the communities and support.

They give us the ability, the timing, encouragement to do that.

So the Nucor Logistics Center, we decided that we would take on the challenge of the American Cancer Society.

And we start to put things together with them to try to start raising money and grow that awareness in this area.

Nucor Corporation and Nucor Company as a whole, is really strong with building relationships and partnership no matter if it's with the vendor or to be with that community, just like we built here in Memphis.

In doing that we were able to engage with those partners, have them help us along, and in year one, we were able to raise $81,000.

Since that time in 2012, which is the first year that we set out to do that.

We have raised over $876,000 for American Cancer Society.

So I remember the first year that they had the Relay Wark here in Memphis.

One of the things, if you've ever been to American Cancer Society relay event is, you all get together, you decorate your booth, you do things to bring people along and, and just get them engaged in what the process is about.

So we pulled up in Nucor fashion, ready to go and excited.

We had a wonderful trailer that was donated by one of our wonderful vendors that we were able to put the American Cancer Society on the side of.

We were able to put our cookers inside of it, all of our decorations done.

And we rolled up to this event.

And when we did, it was a small area that they were accustomed to having these events.

And we pulled out all our our power tools, we put up big tents before you knew it, we had huge displays up that year.

Really, really ready to support the American Cancer Society and get people excited.

In doing that, you know, you wouldn't be able do that with one or two people, but Nucor teammates are always willing to jump in and do what it takes.

[audience clapping] - That's Rob Robertson accepting the award on behalf of Nucor.

[audience clapping] - Our final award in the Corporate Category is for companies with 500 employees or more.

Our honoree is original healthcare company with initiatives to serve the most vulnerable populations in our community with its mobile clinic.

And they stepped up with efforts through the COVID 19 pandemic.

This award goes to Baptist Memorial Healthcare.

- Baptist Memorial Healthcare is comprised of 22 hospitals throughout the Mid-South region.

We serve in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi providing health care in very large communities to some of the smallest communities around.

It's a the three-fold mission of Baptist Memorial Healthcare to really follow the mission of Christ.

Preaching, teaching and healing, and to provide love for God to do the impossible as the way we like to say it.

It opens doors for people to come into our system and also for us to go out into the communities and provide care in non-traditional and very innovative ways.

Typically healthcare services that you would find through a primary care doctor, such as mammograms and screening for women and also children's services at our children's hospital are isolated to those who have health insurance and a relationship with other doctors, but Baptist goes out to do innovative things and we partner with many of those in the Mid-South to deliver those services right there where people need them the most.

Health at Home is another one of our initiatives that during the COVID season, we found that people could not get to the hospital or for some reason did not want to come to the hospital, so we brought the hospital to their front door.

Our uncompensated care figures have been astronomical over the years, over $300 million in services to our community, for those who are, are without health care, those who don't have any insurance at all and those who really don't even have primary care access.

I'm grateful to be associated with such a, a high level team of dedicated individuals who are really frontline healthcare heroes.

One of my personal favorite experiences with Baptist is Black Men In White Coats.

We partner with local area high schools and expose them to many of the healthcare careers, not just African-American males, but African American females and others who would like to participate.

We allow them to have real mentors who follow them and help them to make the right decisions going into medical school.

Every three years, Baptist conducts what is called a community health needs assessment.

We go out and we find ways to serve our community by really getting to know our community.

We ask community stakeholders for their opinion, and they give us their experiences.

And that's how we guide that mission into the future.

Health needs change over a period of time.

One year, it may be one thing and one year it may be another, but Baptist is always on the cutting edge.

Making sure that we know what those needs are and delivering services where they're needed most.

We're proud to be a part of the Mid-South community.

[audience clapping] - That's Keith Norman accepting Baptist's award from Jeremy Park.

[audience clapping] - Our Nonprofit Category honors those organizations with a mission to serve, that better the lives of people in the Mid-South.

Our first award is for nonprofits with an operating budget of under a million dollars.

This year's honoree is more than a youth sports league.

It's a program of outreach and support for kids in at-risk communities with mentors, coaches, and other volunteers from local law enforcement.

This award goes to Memphis Shelby PAL.

- Memphis Shelby PAL.

Stands for Memphis Shelby Police Activities League, it is an independent non-profit organization founded in 2017 as a Juvenile Crime Prevention Program.

Right now we are the only PAL chapter in the state of Tennessee.

We serve over 2,000 kids in Shelby County and surrounding counties DeSoto and Tipton.

We partner right now with Memphis Police Department and Shelby County Sheriff's Department.

And those officers serve as coaches, mentors, volunteers within our program.

Our philosophy is bridging the gap between kids, cops and community.

Cops putting down their police equipment and picking up whistles.

And just letting the youth see them in a different light.

Because they see them everyday in the neighborhoods policing they see them at their schools policing.

But we wanted to just shed a different light on our officers and just let them know that you know, they are there to help us and not just to police us.

We have about 2,000 youths that come through our program and the ages are 5-18.

And we have mentors, we have peer mentors.

Those kids that age out, or those older kids being able come in and mentor the younger kids.

We utilize them as youth coaches.

Sometimes they came out, they come back and they wanna be coaches.

We have coaches right now, coaching children that have come through the program.

During the pandemic, we didn't want the youth to lose focus, we didn't want them to feel like, hey you know, its over, we can't do...

So we came up with creative ways to keep them engaged.

On Tuesdays, we had TikTok Tuesdays, where the children would actually send in their recorded TikTok's.

So things of that sort.

Just seeing the children, once they go through our programs, seeing them as adults, young adults, just seeing them telling stories on how grateful they are, for anything that we may have done for them while they were in the program.

And just listening to some of their success stories, because they always tell us it could've gone another way for them in life.

But because of this program, they were successful in life.

[audience clapping] - Accepting the award for Memphis Shelby PAL, is Director Rosalyn Crawford.

[audience clapping] - Our 2nd award in the Non-Profit Category is for organizations with an operating budget between 1 and 5 million dollars.

Our honoree is a center that responds to reported child abuse and other severe abuse in Shelby County.

The challenges of COVID 19, made their mission more difficult.

But with determination and hard work, they persevered.

The award goes to Memphis Child Advocacy Center.

- The Memphis Child Advocacy Center is a private, public partnership with a multi agency team that responds to reports of child sexual abuse and other severe abuse.

Together our Child Protection Investigation Team works towards safety, healing and justice for victimized kids.

We will actually mark our 30th anniversary of service in this community next year.

We were the 14th Child Advocacy Center in the country that opened our doors.

Based on this new model, which was about kids and families not having them to go multiple places and tell their story again and again.

Here at the Child Advocacy Center, we have the Department of Children Services, the Memphis Police Department, the District Attorney General's Office, cycles through here on a daily basis.

Along with our partners from the Crime Victims and Rape Crisis Center, all local law enforcements, all of these agencies are a part of the team in investigating the cases from their jurisdictions.

And we never quit serving even for those first two weeks, when it was so scary, there were so many unknowns, but we were still here for families dealing with trauma of abuse.

Stewards of Children is a evidence informed child sexual abuse prevention and response training for adults.

It uses really effective, real life stories of adults, talking about what happened to them as kids.

We've been working towards tipping point goal of training at least 5% of the Shelby County adult population.

The idea behind that is when we reach that many people, which is about 35,000 we will begin to see a real change in community norms around the protection of kids and the prevention of child sexual abuse.

We are at approximately 80% of goal.

And we will make it there in the next couple of years, I hope.

We, of course, like most other non-profits had to move our in person fundraising events to virtual.

The first of those for us was our chef celebrity gala.

Which is our biggest fundraiser of they year.

Typically raises over $200,000.

We actually had over 70% of our sponsors continue their sponsorship.

For their gala table, for a party that was online, and not in person, not the big fun party with dancing and great food, that they normally get to attend.

And again, we are virtual this year.

And again, we have over 70% of sponsors continuing that sponsorship.

So you know of course, what that tells me, is that yeah, people love a fun party but they also believe in the work that we do.

I think about the dedication of the staff, who had to be here to do those forensic interviews, to provide that advocacy support.

Again, during some very scary days of unknowns, and I think that this award is all about them and their sacrifices and their dedications.

And so I wanna thank our staff, for all that they've done through the last year and a half.

- That's Virginia Stallworth, accepting the award from Jeremy Park.

[audience clapping] - The final award in the Non-Profit Category is a for an organization with an operating budget over $5 million.

This general institution has been helping children for more than 125 years.

Providing residential service for children in need, and care for families in difficult times.

The award goes to Palmer Home for Children.

- Palmer Home for Children was born in 1895.

A group of concerned citizens, lead pastor, women of the church were paying attention to the fact that there were children, literally in the streets, who needed a place to call home.

And that origin has sort of been the heart and soul of Palmer Home for a 100, now 26 years.

And we built on that original legacy in so may different ways, over so many different decades.

And it seems like this past few years have been very exciting with a lot of change.

But the beauty of Palmer Home is our mission remains the same, and that is to reach out to children who for different reasons beyond their control, need somewhere to put their head at night and need people to call friends and ultimately family.

And that's what Palmer Home is really about.

You know I think Palmer Home is a place that people love, but its also a place that people want to get involved.

They believe in the mission, they believe that helping children is part of who we are as a people.

And we've been really blessed to have people volunteer in a variety of different ways.

Some people chose to be mentors, they wanna get involved and they wanna influence the child's life and we have folks that wanna get closer to the project and as they move from mentor, they might wanna foster a child.

We just seen some incredible families step forward and do those type of things.

We also need respite care.

We have folks who are serving all of the time.

Of course there are many other ways to serve with our events and our campus and just volunteering to extend the message.

Because we do, of course depend on private funds.

So we love to spread the reach of our story, involve people in lots of different ways.

And we're so blessed to have so many volunteers from the area being involved.

If there's one thing I think that people should know about Palmer Home, is that nobody comes to work, for instance, at Palmer Home by accident.

They come because their mission driven.

And its our responsibility to create the right structure and the right process.

But at the heart of Palmer Home, what we're really trying to create is home for people who need it and we all need it.

We all need somewhere to call home.

Its really more than a physical space, its an emotional space, it is a relationship and all of those things play into making, what I think, is a very special program which is Palmer Home for Children.

That's what makes us different.

Everybody involved in Palmer Home is committed to a relationship and a life and success of the children who come to us.

And we put our shoulder to the wheel and we work together, that children lives truly can be changed.

And they can be put on a path that's gonna make complete difference in their world and the world of people around them.

And its so exciting to see what Palmer Home can create.

[audience clapping] - There you see Lauren Waites accepting the award for Palmer Home for Children.

[audience clapping] - A community that plans for its future, values education and the people who work to provide it.

Even when times are challenging as they have been through this last year.

Our first award in the Education Category is the School Award.

Our honoree is a Middle School, that's made tremendous gains in providing equitable education to a student body that includes some of the city's most disadvantage kids.

Through efforts, they enhance students emotional well being as well as their academic needs.

This award goes to Kirby Middle School.

- At Kirby Middle School, we're actually a turnaround school.

Green Dot Public Schools took over Kirby back in 2016.

Were a grade level 6-8 school, and serve about 450 students.

We were almost shocked by the number of students who were actually getting online, logging in to every class, and really taking their education seriously throughout the pandemic.

And I think that speaks to not only the prep work that went into protecting instructional time, and making sure academics stayed as the top priority for our teachers.

But also it speaks to, just the strong teaching staff that I have here.

There's an extreme teacher shortage right now, and so I'm grateful to be able to say that, you know, we have certified teachers in every classroom.

We're really taking this thing from an asset based approach this school year.

Knowing that kids are coming back, there are gaps.

Even though we had a strong distance learning program, it did not replace the power of being with students in person and making those daily connections and building those relationships with kids.

And so we're really excited to be back in full swing this year, where we know kids have these gaps, but we also know they are super resilient, they're super strong, they're coming back and the're strategies that we put in place to keep them focus on academics is the main thing.

The work that we do with social emotional learning, within our advisory program.

The work that we do just to truly prepare students for a success in college leadership in life.

It really plays out in a number of different ways.

And we have so many parents and students and community members that really just praise us for some of the initiatives that we've taken on here at Kirby Middle School.

I'm proud to say that we have a team of people here who are dedicated to meeting those needs of students.

And it's showing in the data that kids love it here.

Its really powerful to be able to say that we have a culture and a climate here where adults and students clearly want to be.

And that's something I don't take lightly, especially now.

[audience clapping] - That's principal Marian Williams accepting the award on behalf of Kirby Middle School.

[audience clapping] - Our next award is the Educator Award.

A teacher at Richland Elementary, our honoree helped her school's, students and colleagues, respond to the COVID pandemic through her hard work and virtual learning.

Her mentorship of new teachers and grant writing that enabled the school to meet and exceed CDC standards for resuming classroom education.

This award goes to Allyson Chick.

- My name is Allyson Chick, I teach at Richland Elementary School.

I have been teaching for 20 years.

I think my favorite part of teaching is the aha!

moments that students have when they get it or when they realize something new and you see that light bulb go off.

It takes so much behind the scenes work, in terms of lesson planning and researching and reading and staying up to date on what my students are most interested in.

To switch from in person to virtual to hybrid and back to in person again, takes a huge shift and sometimes you learn that the way you have always done things, isn't the best way.

And so coming out of this, in terms to my growth professionally, I've learned so many new ways to reach my students professionally that my teaching would never be the same.

When we first found out on March 13th, that date will always be on my mind, and the longer that we were out, the more I kept thinking about what can I do?

How can I support my students and support their families?

And I was hearing a lot of stories about a frontline workers and just how challenging it was for nurses or firemen or police officers.

My little sister, she's a rockstar, Stacy, she works for a company called ON.

And they, for the most part you might know ON for their shoes.

I helped her by finding families that have parents that were firemen, police officers, medical staff, and we were able to provide them new shoes.

Think about how many hours that our medical staff; nurses, doctors are on their feet.

And that was just one thing that we could do to help support them.

So it was really, so inspiring to think about how just a pair of shoes just brought so much light into their lives, just really made them feel like we were seeing them and knowing how much were supporting our community.

When we first found out that we were going to come back in person, in a hybrid model, we were concerned with safety measures that we can put in place for our students.

I wrote a grant that was funded by Triple A, to get shields, the shields I was able to get are clear all the way around and are an appropriate size for our little learners, so they can see clearly without any obstructed view and feel safe behind the shield.

I feel like for me to be recognized as a Spark, I think all teachers deserve this Spark Award.

And I feel like I'm accepting this award on behalf of all educators here.

I've seen teachers overcome such challenges, such amazing challenges, to make sure they were everything that they can be for their students, during this difficult time.

I am surrounded by heroes.

- There's Allyson Chick, accepting the Educator Award from Jeremy Park.

[audience clapping] - Now for our final award in the Education Category, the Leadership Award.

This year our Leadership Honoree is a nurse.

Who has had the responsibility for leading Shelby County Schools in its response to the COVID pandemic.

Her dedication and daily on the ground leadership inspired her staff and enable the school system to continue its mission.

The Education Leadership Award goes to Dr. Patricia Bafford, Director of Health Services for Shelby County Schools.

- I'm Dr. Patricia Bafford, I am the Director of Health Services for Shelby County Schools and Shelby County with exceptional children in health services.

In a normal world, I've got several responsibilities.

I am actually working directly with our nurses in Shelby County School.

I also work directly with out coordinator school health department, the COVID Contact Tracing Center was actually, as you can imagine, it is because we got COVID out nationwide.

And everybody has heard about COVID.

So what our district has done, is we have increased the capacity to respond to those cases that are being reported in our district.

This initiative started off with just myself and another member of the team in Risk Management.

But we worked in collaboration with the Health Department to get pretty much how we our addressing COVID through phone calls, taken the cases.

We developed a data base and the data base actually we can enter staff cases and student cases in the data base.

And so on a daily basis we are getting that information, putting it into the database and reporting it to the Health Department.

We are working with the Health Department to make sure that what we're doing for Shelby County Schools is the cutting edge of everything that's coming down from the CDC, the Health Department.

And so when we put those things together, we actually have reports that we send to the Health Department on a daily basis.

This year we've been fortunate enough to have funding and it's the ELC funding that we got through the federal government.

It stands for Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity and basically those nurses have come to us and we've been fortunate to build the capacity to add nurses on the ground with us to work with our district staff to help us to answer calls and be able to work in a timely manner so that we can put the contacts with those cases, get them to the Health Department and make sure that we are identifying those individuals that need to go into quarantine and isolation.

As a nurse I'm really excited that I'm having the opportunity to stay in for our nurses that are working with me, it really pleases me to see that somebody said okay lets get the nurses out there, lets see what they're saying, lets see what they're doing.

So I'm really honored that we are getting the recognition and I'm saying we, because this just not I, it is we.

[audience clapping] - That cityCURRENT Allyson Carson accepting the award on behalf of Dr. Bafford.

[audience clapping] - Our Individual Awards remind us that every positive trend begins with 1 person making an effort.

Our Individual Youth Award Honoree is a member of the class of 22 at Briarcrest Christian High School, and the founder of a bi-monthly food drive serving the needy residence of Orange Mound.

This award goes to Miller Manguno.

- My name is Miller Manguno, I am a Senior at Briarcrest.

I play football and I play lacrosse and I really enjoy doing both of those.

And I'm also the leader of the nonprofit organization, Operation Orange Handling.

My sophomore year, I had to go on our mission 1:8 day, which is like the Briarcrest day of service.

And we ended up going to Orange Mound.

So I got to witness the community there but also the hunger strike that they have.

And it really, really impacted me and so I talked to my parents about it and they linked to me one of their old friends, who works with organization titled, Mosaic Memphis.

And so we have both partner together with the Briarcrest Wilson Society to donate food and other supplies directly towards Orange Mound.

It just started as a required project for the service club, Wilson Society, and wanted us to bring 10 cans and 1 big thing of peanut butter, because that's what they say is the most important thing for them.

But when COVID hit, we were a little confused exactly how to operate, but we reached out through Facebook, Instagram and all social media platforms, and urge people to see if they would drop things off safely to our doorstep and that way we can still keep the process going on.

It felt like everyday there was another just gigantic case of food items or any of those type of things that would arrive on my doorstep, and people were generous enough to donate money as well directly towards the organization and it was really great for them to see and it was really, really great, especially for the people considering they really needed that strength in such a tough time.

So now we have our weekly, or actually bi-weekly, donations of the cans and the peanut butter.

But we also have some other projects that we have kind of included with it.

One titled, Helpful Hampers, which is we bring in cleaning supplies, and other laundry supplies and right now we're in the process of inventing a new one, titled, Make A Bed.

Where we build bunk beds and get sheets and linens for them in order for them to stay clean as much as possible.

I think my favorite experience was the first time I went down to Mosaic Memphis and dropped off a bunch of new things, a bunch of new supplies and I got to talk with the people there and it shows you how truly appreciate they are for every tiny little thing and it truly meant the most to me.

[audience clapping] - That's Briarcrest Miller Manguno receiving his Spark Award.

[audience clapping] - The 2nd award in the Individual Category is the Collegiate Award.

Our honoree's a junior at the University of Memphis, secretary of the student organization, Empowed Men of Color, and a volunteer at organizations such as Advance Memphis and Memphis Rocks, that's an addition to being a real estate agent.

This awards goes to Matthew Szalaj.

- My name is Matt Szalaj, I'm a Finance major at the University of Memphis.

I'm involved as the current secretary of Empowered Men of Color.

Our whole focus is increasing the graduation and retentional rates of minority men on campus.

And so we have different events and mass meetings, in which we go over different topics that are meant to improve the quality of the students as leaders and professionals.

You know the other day we had an event with Empowered Men of Color, we just helped teach people how to tie ties.

We've seen the excitement on people faces when they finally figured it out.

They finally comfortable with the tie, it seems very simple.

But to see it in their faces, it's rewarding.

My parents come from very humbling beginnings, so I'm very blessed to be in the life that I have now.

So I work as a commercial real estate broker in the city and so I would like to continue my work as that.

Definitely would like to continue my impact on the city.

I've been helped out a lot and guided along the way, and so it feels really good for me to be able to give back the same energy that I was receiving basically.

Advance Memphis is a really great faith based non profit in the city.

Their focus is uplifting adults in the South Memphis area through establishing economic stability.

I am involved with them I'm a mock interviewer, when they need me.

So I help with their interview training, resume training, just helping the adults get back into the workforce.

Develop them as productive members of society.

There is one instance where I sat down with somebody that wasn't very comfortable, until after the interview I had them go ahead and practice the interview again.

And they went on to tell some of the workers at Advance Memphis about how being able to go over the interview again, made them so much more comfortable, they felt a lot more comfortable just in the interview setting now, after everything we discussed.

You know its leading that impact with that will carry on you know after I'm gone.

So I'm impacting others that would then impact others.

And that just creates a big cycle.

I'd like to thank my parents and everything they've done, of course.

Eric Furhman from Crye-Leike Commercial, as well as the whole office.

Ryan Wade and all of Multicultural Affairs at the University of Memphis.

As well as the people at Advance Memphis for giving me the opportunity to volunteer with them.

[audience clapping] - There you see Matthew Szalaj getting his Spark Award from Jeremy Park.

[audience clapping] - Our Individual Adult Honoree this year is a pastor whose passion for service lead him to close his church one Sunday a month.

And take his congregation out to serve others for Go Out Sunday.

Additionally he's lead initiatives to serve the hungry, to serve the first responders and making lunch for children in need.

This awards goes to Doug Bell.

- I'm Pastor Doug Bell, of Crosspoint Church in Olive Branch Mississippi.

I pastor Crosspoint church, I'm also the CEO of Destiny Center and on the board of a fantastic organization called DeSoto Grace, we mentor kids.

My role in the community started as a need in my own personal life.

It started with the experience that I had growing up in Holly Springs, in a low income situation.

I noticed that there were opportunities out there for people.

There were people who wanted to give people a helping hand, lift them up if you will, but the connector was not there.

So what I tried to do is look at the situations what are people's needs, what is available and the missing link in all of this is always communication and connectors.

So we have what is called a Resource Navigator, it keeps a book of resources of available.

Because if the resources are available, you and I, don't need to recreate the wheel.

I tell my team all the time, if there's a resource available we're going to take that person to that resource, we're gonna find a way to connect that resource and that person, and if that resource is not done with excellence, if its not done with dignity, then we're gonna find a better way to do it and try to meet that need in our own way.

So yeah there's some innovation here, but its all born out of the experience.

At Crosspoint Church, we encountered an obstacle, like all of you have, and that was 2020.

When the year becomes an entire obstacle, and you know what I'm talking about, then it has affected a wide range of people.

In 2020, we noticed the obstacle was actually an opportunity at Crosspoint Church that we were closed at one point 65% of the year on the weekend.

And we found that our church could still operate, we could still connect, we could still network and we can still make a difference in our community.

Even with our church doors closed and not singing songs, and even with me not preaching messages.

So we started 1st Sunday.

Now, we intentionally close our church doors every 1st Sunday of the month and we don't come in and sing and we don't preach.

We go out to the community and we serve the community.

Along with the work and the efforts of Crosspoint Church, Destiny Center is a mobile community center that brings resources and people together.

I was raised by my grandmother in Holly Springs Mississippi, but she didn't know how to drive, she could not drive, we were on the lower income scale of people and we had to rely on people to come and take us to the store or just any where.

I understood as a very young man that if resource was out of reach, that resources was not available to you.

So we try to connect the resources.

Its all about transportation, its all about connecting people and resources.

'Cause like I said, if a resource exists, but a person has no way to attain it, it doesn't exist for that person.

It may seem overwhelming to try to change the whole world, but you don't have to change the whole world.

Every one of you, every one of us, can change somebody's world.

[audience clapping] - There's Pastor Doug Bell receiving his Spark Award.

[audience clapping] - The Legacy Award honors an individual for a lifetime of service, and in particular the kind of service that leaves a lasting impact.

Making change in the lives of children and communities in Memphis is a long game.

Our Legacy Award Honoree has spent 30+ years in service.

In the military, in law enforcement and as a nonprofit leader.

- As founder of Memphis Bears Incorporated and now Executive Director of Sheriffs and Police Activities League of Memphis and Shelby County.

He spent over 25 years serving the needs of kids through sports.

Building positive relationships, guidance and support on the field and in the lives of hundreds of young people.

And building an organization which continues to grow resources and opportunities for these youths.

- This year Legacy Award is presented to Craig Littles.

[cheering squad cheering] - Did they win momma?

- Yes pastor they win!

- My name is Craig Littles I serve as the Executive Director and founder of Memphis PAL programs city wide.

Also I serve as the Vice Chairman of National PAL.

I'm a native Memphian, a Dessert Storm veteran, I've devoted almost 30 years of my life to make Memphis better.

I recently retired after 28 years as a law enforcement officer.

And I'm the proud Chief Executive Officer of Memphis Chapter of PAL and the VIP PAL program as well.

As a cop coaching citizen I've spent most of my life serving this community.

Personal youth and my passion came from being a product of the community.

I grew up in Frayser, I grew up in Ridgecrest Apartments attended Trezevant High School.

And as a youth, I saw where my trajectory was going the opposite way of where most people wanted to go.

My role model was dope dealers and drug people.

So I really didn't have a lot of positive energy around my life.

All living in poverty, growing in a neighborhood that were affected and riddled with crime.

A gentlemen saw me playing youth sports at the age of 8 years old, talking about football and asked me to participate.

At that time my life changed to seeing there was a way out of my environment, out of my situation on to bigger and better things.

I think without having a structure and a model in my life, my life would have been drastically different.

I'm a single parent of 3 children, their mom passed away at a very early age.

I raised my kids alone as a single parent and actually the program services helped me raise my kids and they helped me structure my children and gave them something positive to do.

Along the way, so many other children became my surrogate children and have now gone on to make me so proud of them going to be positive role models, positive citizens, police officers, teachers and now some of them might be coaching NFL players and so many other things.

So this has really changed not only my life, but gained me a platform to be the difference maker to so many others.

Growing up in Frayser, I work with majority of kids from this 38127 zip code, we took a group of kids from a summer camp out to eat, which is Taco Bell which is right in their neighborhood.

But we notice that one child didn't want to eat, he didn't want to order and asked him was he hungry, he said no, which we knew that wasn't the case 'cause we've been out all morning.

So I finally got him to the side and asked him why he was not eating, he says he never been to Taco Bell.

He lives a stones throw from Taco Bell, but this just goes to show us that you never know what magnitude or what changes did you do that surround these kids and how to fix their lives a long the way.

And that led us to not only take kids to different places within the city but now take them national program, like Washington D.C. for our youth summit, or Florida to the Disney World and the championship in Disney world.

And so many other mentor in this division, that puts a smile on my face.

During the pandemic we was able to continue servicing our youth.

Our partners and our staff, who have volunteered, are continue to come up with creative ideas, continue servicing theses kids.

And our youth that we serve, they would be actually be number 1 and showing them appreciation.

'Cause this award is not just for me, its for the 25+ years of people that have gone through this with me and our children and consistently give, dynamic program to our community.

If you're from the community, and you have left the community, the need is still here.

If you're in the community, the need is still here.

So come, help and join give some time talent and treasure to these unique individuals, these youth that we serve, you never who gonna be the next leader, the next difference maker, the next you in this community.

So give back, serve and continue to do so.

Its a lovely day, a lovely day for football.

- Ladies and gentlemen, the Spark Award 2021 Legacy Award Honoree Craig Littles.

[audience clapping] - Congratulations!

- Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, I'm truly humbled by this opportunity.

Whereas I could not have achieved this on my own, after 30 years of service as a coach, cop and citizen.

And I'm wholeheartedly thankful to the many youths, families and friends and supporters for their continued support pushing me and never letting me stop.

I would also like to thank the community of Memphis and Shelby County for believing in the mission I have set forth to accomplish these many years of engaging our youth during the most critical times, summertime and after school months.

In any effort to prevent and reduce juvenile crime in our communities.

For which we currently serve a approximately 2,000 youth annually.

And we looking to increase that number each and every year.

And lastly a special thank you to Jeremy Park, and cityCURRENT and WKNO and Midtown Rotary Club, for this awesome, awesome honor and recognition.

I accept this on behalf of all our PAL kids, staff, volunteers, family and friends.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[audience clapping] - Thank you for joining us for the 8th Annual Spark Awards.

On behalf of the Spark team, cityCURRENT, WKNO, Tracy Bethea, Rob Grayson and myself, I wanna extend our profound thank you to our honorees.

Thanks for your contributions, thanks for your inspiration and most of all thank you for being a Spark.

[audience clapping] - The Spark Awards 2021 is made possible in part by the following: - From our very beginnings in 1954, Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity and supporting our communities.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement and leading by example to power the good.

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of the Spark Awards.

- On behalf of the entire Champion Promotion team, we're honored to be a presenting sponsor of the Spark Awards.

Champion is proud to have helped design the custom award given to each of the honorees and to be a presenting sponsor from the very beginning.

We'll continue to support this wonderful tradition.

- So for over 50 years Champion has been helping companies and organizations in Memphis and the Mid-South grow and expand her brands with branding products.

We can provide everything from printed and embroidered apparel to promotional items and custom awards, such as the Spark Award.

Our commitment to our customers extends from being on brand on everything to be a catalyst in our community.

- We wanna congratulate all of this year's honorees and thank them for making a huge impact in our great city.

Have a great holiday season.

- Additional funding for the Spark Awards is provided by: Meritan, United Way of the Mid-South, My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, My Town Miracles and by SRVS.

[lite rock music]