Saturday, January 13, 20188:00 – 10:30 AM

Punta Gorda Middle School

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Community Breakfast

12th Annual

Hosted By:BLANCHARD HOUSE MUSEUM

Dr. Martha Bireda, Executive Director

We would like to express our sincere

thanks to the Charlotte County

community for your support. Your

donations make the Blanchard House

Museum programs possible.

All proceeds from this event go to support the museum’s programs.

A special thanks goes out to our friends and supporters at

Florida Gulf Coast University

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2018 Community Breakfast ProgramBreakfast Served 8:00 – 9:00AM

Program 9:00 – 10:30AM

Welcome Fran Holleran Pledge of Allegiance Master of CeremoniesIntroductions

Occasion Dr. Martha Bireda

Invocation Mr. Nellson Jacobs-Moore

Lift Every Voice and Sing Ms. Lena Jones

Introduction of Speaker Ms. Rori EvansFGCU Student

Keynote Speaker Dr. Michael MartinPresident, Florida Gulf Coast University

Presentation of Awards Fran HolleranRenee Caruthers

George Brown Humanitarian AwardLt Charles P. Bailey Spirit of Achievement Award2018 MLK Essay Contest WinnersCommunity Elder Recognition Award

Museum Program Update Dr. Martha Bireda

Thank You/Announcements

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George Brown Humanitarian Award

2003 John H. AllenBooker T. Haynes, Sr.U. S. Cleveland

2004 Dr. Robert Shedd (in Memoriam)Cornelia Ponder (in Memoriam)

2007 Gussie BakerBessie Bryant

2008 Lorene BaileyDon Atwell

2009 Frances J. HaynesMargaret E. Johnson

2010 Sushila CherianMargaret Spann

2012 Rev. Booker T. Haynes, Jr. (in Memoriam)2013 Dr. Patricia Washington2016 Albert A. “Butch” Arenal 2017 L. Victor Desguin, Jr.

Abraham Coleman2018 Leo Wotitzky (in Memoriam)

Lt Charles P. Bailey Spirit of Achievement Award

2008 John and Betty Murphy2009 Lindsey Williams, Historian2010 Rev. Dr. Carl F. Brooks2011 Dr. Wilson Bradshaw2014 Thomas “Tommy” Fulton (in Memoriam)2015 Loreen Haynes Hughes (in Memoriam)2018 Gordon L. Bower

In 1964, at the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was theyoungest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toend segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedienceand other non-violent means. When notified of his selection, heannounced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to thefurtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of hismotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protestmarch in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he wasassassinated.

He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in1977. Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday inthe United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded aCongressional Gold Medal.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 –April 4, 1968), was one of the main leaders ofthe American civil rights movement. MartinLuther attended segregated public schools inGeorgia, graduating from high school at the ageof fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948from Morehouse College.

After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminaryin Pennsylvania he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University,completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving thedegree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a youngwoman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sonsand two daughters were born into the family.

A Baptist minister by training, King became a civil rights activist earlyin his career, leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helping tofound the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His efforts led tothe 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. King delivered his famous“I Have A Dream” speech, raising public consciousness of the civilrights movement and establishing King as one of the greatest oratorsin American history.

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Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty;Let our rejoicing rise,

High as the listening skies,Let it resound

loud as the rolling sea.Sing a song

full of the faiththat the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hopethat the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sunof our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

James W. Johnson composed the lyrics of "Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing," originally written for a celebration of President Lincoln's birthday at Stanton School. This song would later become to be known - and adopted as such by the NAACP - as the Negro National Anthem.

byJames Weldon Johnson

(1899)

520

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Florida Gulf Coast University

President Michael V. Martin, Ph.D.

President Martin came to FGCU from the Colorado State University System,where he served most recently as Chancellor Emeritus and Senior Fellowfollowing three years as Chancellor. Prior to this, he was Chancellor ofLouisiana State University; President of New Mexico State University; VicePresident for Agriculture and Natural Resources at University of Florida;Vice President for Agricultural Policy at University of Minnesota; andserved 15 years on the faculty, including a term as Faculty Senatepresident, at Oregon State University.

A native of Crosby, Minnesota, Dr. Martin earned a bachelor's degree inbusiness and economics and a master's degree in economics at MankatoState College (now Minnesota State University). He received his Ph.D. inapplied economics from the University of Minnesota in 1977. His areas ofspecialization are prices, international trade, public policy, transportation,and business logistics. His membership on local, state and national boardsand organizations spans decades of service, and currently includes theFarm Foundation Board of Trustees, and the International AgriculturalTrade Research Consortium.

Dr. Martin and his wife, Jan, are parents to two children adopted fromKorea. Amanda graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire ingraphic design. She and her husband, Paul Ehrsam, are parents to twoterrific grandsons, Logan and Charlie. Son Sam has a bachelor's degree inbiology from the University of Minnesota, a master's degree in humangenetics from Sarah Lawrence University, and a master's degree insoftware engineering from Pace University.

We welcome Dr. Martin and his family to Punta Gorda and Southwest Florida.

Michael V. Martin serves as President ofFlorida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). TheFlorida Gulf Coast University Board of Trusteesunanimously selected Dr. Martin to becomethe institution’s fourth President on July 1,2017, and his appointment was confirmed bythe Board of Governors.

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Gordon L. Bower2018 Lt Charles P. Bailey Spirit of Achievement Award

Gordon Bower was born and raised in a small farm community in SouthernIllinois. Only one small high school served the whole county. It was a tightlyknit community and a great place to grow up.

Even as a child, however, Gordon dreamed of expanding his horizons. Heparticularly enjoyed his grade school social studies classes, which studieddifferent cultures and countries around the world. He vowed to one dayexperience them.

His dream came true beyond his wildest expectations. While attending theUniversity of Illinois, he took a class whose professor served in the WWIIOffice of Strategic Services, forerunner of today’s Central IntelligenceAgency. The professor’s close friend from those days was the head of thestudent program at CIA.

Gordon was accepted into the program and worked there three summerswhile pursuing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After experiencing theattractions of Washington, D.C. and the excitement of intelligence work, heknew he wanted a career with the agency. Although his quest wasinterrupted by 2 years in the Army, he signed on for an interesting 29-yearcareer. He traveled to more than 60 countries, honed his writing skills, andheld a number of managerial positions.

In 1997, tired of traffic, travel and long work hours, he and the love of hislife, Kathy, who also worked at CIA, took early retirement to move to thewarmer climate and small-town atmosphere of Punta Gorda. After 3 yearsof decompressing, he started working for the Charlotte Sun and soonaccepted the job as editor of the paper’s weekly Punta Gorda Heraldsection. It was a perfect match, and he worked long hours to bringcommunity news to city residents.

His primary goal as editor was to support community organizations thatmake the city so special. One of his favorites was the Blanchard HouseMuseum. In 2002, he walked alongside the truck hauling the dilapidated oldhouse to its current site and from that day wrote frequently to promote itstransformation into a first-class museum and asset to the community.

Gordon retired as editor in 2010 but still writes occasional feature storiesfor the Herald. In his spare time, he bikes, serves on the Block Party board,and tends a collection of palms numbering 129 species.

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Leo Wotitzky2018 George Brown Humanitarian Award

Leo Wotitzky was born in Punta Gorda on May 19, 1912. He is a 3rd

generation Punta Gordan. His grandfather Jacob Wotitzky came toPunta Gorda in 1886. Leo attended Charlotte High School andgraduated in 1929 as valedictorian. After high school he went to theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville to study pre-law. He graduatedcollege during the Great Depression in 1933. There were very fewjobs at the time, so Leo returned to his home town to work at thePunta Gorda Herald, where he had worked while in high school. Thefollowing year he was a mathematics and science teacher in CrescentCity, Florida. In 1935, he returned to Punta Gorda to teachmathematics and science at Charlotte High School.

In 1936 he went to Baltimore to work in the new Social Securitysystem but Leo became disillusioned with being a bureaucrat so heonce again returned to Punta Gorda. Mr. Wotitzky was elected to theFlorida legislature in 1938 and served until 1950. In 1950 Leo enteredthe University of Florida College of Law. He graduated law school in1953 and then entered his brother's law practice in Punta Gorda. Thatsame year Leo married Miss Zena Cox who had been a HomeEconomics teacher at Charlotte High School. They had three children:Edward, Mary and Hal. They were married for 52 years.

Leo Wotitzky was instrumental in helping to save Punta Gorda’s oldcourthouse and as a legislator was a champion for better educationand helping to gain legislation to remove cattle from public areaswhen Charlotte County was still an open-range county in the late1940s. Leo sat on numerous boards and chairmanships. He was onthe board of the then Punta Gorda Hospital, the Charlotte CountyFoundation, the FGCU Foundation Board, the Charlotte County Boardof Trustees to name a few and he was President of the Murdock Bank.“Mr. Leo” was instrumental in the establishment of the BlanchardHouse Museum.

Leo Wotitzky practiced law well into his eighties. He passed awayfollowing a lengthy illness on November 13, 2005, at the age of 93.

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2018 MLK Essay ContestHigh School Winners

1st Place – Madison Burton, Charlotte High SchoolTeacher: Ms. Teresa Hughes

2nd Place – Reed Taillon, Charlotte High SchoolTeacher: Ms. Teresa Hughes

Middle School Winners1st Place – Lily Mortimer, Murdock Middle School

Teacher: Ms. Leah Morello

2nd Place – Caleb Whitmore, LA Ainger Middle SchoolTeacher: Ms. Mary Murphy

Hon Mention – Adrian Nina, Murdock Middle SchoolTeacher: Ms. Leah Morello

Elementary School Winners

1st Place – Willow Carpenter, Meadow Park Elementary Teacher: Ms. Michelle Taylor

2nd Place – Jordan Ortiz, Sallie Jones ElementaryTeacher: Ms. Pamela Lathers

“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

-- Dr. Martin Luther King

Best WishesSushila Cherian

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