Christian Hospital Foundation to award scholarships at MLK celebration

The Christian Hospital Foundation will award six students with scholarships and honor three individuals with the Drum Major for Service Award at the foundation’s first “Embracing the Dream – The Beloved Community” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Luncheon on Jan. 12 at Christian Hospital. The event is a celebration of hope and healing for our beloved community. Marc Morial, National Urban League president, is the keynote speaker, and Carol Daniel, KMOX news anchor, will serve as mistress of ceremonies. 

Scholarships will be awarded at the celebration to the following students, who were selected by their school districts:

• David Friend, Jennings School District
• Dawson Hohe, Hazelwood School District
• Cheyenne Parson, Ferguson-Florissant School District
• Tatis Shelton, Normandy School District
• Lauren Smith, Trinity Catholic High School
• Jacqueline Vaughan, Riverview Gardens School District
• Amanda Honeywood, St. Louis Community College–Florissant Valley

The Drum Major for Service Award will be presented at the celebration to honor the following unsung individuals who have given their time, talents and treasure in service of justice and equality:

• Rebeccah L. Bennett, founder and principal of Emerging Wisdom LLC and InPowerInstitute
• Dr. Barbara K. Thompson, vice president of North County Churches Uniting for Racial Harmony and Justice
• Desiree Whitlock, president of the Hazelwood School District Board of Education

The award is inspired by the following words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. describing what he called the “Drum Major Instinct” in a sermon over a half-century ago to the congregation in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church: “If you want to say I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness … We all have the drum major instinct.”

Christian Hospital Foundation raises and allocates funds to support efforts such as patient care, advancing medicine and technology, community benefit programs, community health access, staff education and new hospital facilities and equipment.