The Martin Luther King Jr. Association will kick off the the 2010 King holiday with its annual youth awards. The event will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, at UNC Asheville's Lipinsky Auditorium. This year 27 outstanding youth were nominated by peers, teachers, pastors, and community leaders to receive the Martin Luther King Youth Award. Each nominee will be recognized at the celebration and honored for their leadership. The event is free and open to the public.

"The joint sponsorship is designed in part to encourage local teens to become familiar with the University and think of it as part of their future. The campus, located several miles from downtown, can be a forbidding place to inner city teens and pre-teens, many of whom don’t imagine a college education as part of their future," said Oralene Simmons, chair of the King Association. "The Association and the University hope to break down that barrier by inviting the high school and middle-school students onto campus. To that end, undergraduate leaders will participate in the youth-themed program and offer the teens mentoring and campus orientation."

“UNC Asheville, one of the true gems of Western North Carolina, has been something of a hidden gem to an essential part of our community,” said UNC Asheville Provost Jane Fernandes. “We want local youth to see our campus as the welcoming and inclusive place it is designed to be.”

The event includes music and live entertainment as well as refreshments donated by the University. Support for the program is also provided by Asheville High School and other area organizations, businesses, and individuals.

“We would not be able to honor these youth the way we do without the contributions of many dedicated people who extend their time and generosity beyond measure. Provost Fernandes and her husband James, Angela Jones, Jacqueline and James King, and David Gantt – they are all crucial to making this event a success," said Simmons.


Other Martin Luther King Day Events Sponsored by the Association

January 16 -- The 29th annual Prayer Breakfast featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., 8:30 a.m., Grove Park Inn Grand Ballroom, $20 adults or $15 youths

January 18 -- Peace March and Rally from Nazareth First Baptist Church to Martin Luther King Park, noon. The march is cosponsored by the City of Asheville and Buncombe County.

January 18 -- Candlelight Service, 6 p.m., St. Matthias Episcopal Church, One Dundee Street, off S. Charlotte St.

For more information, call Simmons at 828/281-1624 or the Association at 828/335-6896.