NEWS BRIEFS: Zucker to keynote MLK event

Staff reports  |  Charleston philanthropist and business leader Anita Zucker will offer keynote remarks next month at the MLK Annual Business and Professional Summit, the capstone event of a 10-day yearly tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg is honorary chair.

Zucker

The event, which will be before a limited audience of 50 in a socially-distanced format at 7:30 a.m. Jan 19, will be held at the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Camden Room at 375 Meeting Street in Charleston.  The event, which routinely draws hundreds to an annual breakfast in non-pandemic times, also will be offered virtually.  

Virtual attendance of the 2021 MLK Annual Business and Professional Summit will be complimentary. Registration information will be available in early January at ywcagc.org.

Zucker, who currently serves as chair and chief executive officer of The InterTech Group, Inc., is an advocate for education and a passionate philanthropist. The recipient of the 2019 Ernst & Young Lifetime Achievement Award, 2019 James L. Fisher Distinguished Service Award, and 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, among many other honors, she has served on boards throughout South Carolina and beyond.

The 49th annual Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration is one of Charleston’s longest running events, predating Spoleto Festival USA and other well-known local events. The annual celebration was founded by YWCA Greater Charleston and first held in January 1972—one of the first such tributes to King in the nation. The MLK Business and Professional Breakfast was added in January 2000 in partnership with former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. and the city of Charleston. Today the celebration is the largest tribute to King in South Carolina, attracting thousands of celebrants each year.

• More information:  ywcagc.org/mlk. 

In other news:

Watch the heavens on Dec. 21.  Tonight’s winter solstice will feature something that only happens only once every 20 years — Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction, meaning they appear close in the sky.  Tonight’s conjunction reportedly will be the closest since 1623. The two planets reportedly are going to appear so close in the sky that you may not be able to distinguish that they are two without binoculars. It’s definitely worth checking out.  Learn more here. 

Cunningham gives last floor speech.  U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, cracked open a cold one during his farewell speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. In a final speech urging bipartisanship, Cunningham raised a beer as his parting shot in Congress. Read more. 

Big new scholarship fund. Hats off to Charleston businessman Ben Navarro and his wife Kathy for funding a $10,000 college scholarship for up to 500 students by 2024.  The $5 million annual investment in the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund seeks to open the door for Charleston County School District students with strong academic records and financial need to attend college. The scholarship will fill the funding gap that prevents many under-resourced students from pursuing and attaining a college degree. Scholarship recipients will be awarded up to $10,000 per year, for a total of $40,000 over four years, to pay for tuition at South Carolina’s leading colleges and universities. But according to a press release, the Navarros’ hope is that, over time, many more students will achieve the academic results needed to qualify for the scholarship.

Osborne

New president.  Welcome Nick Osborne, new president and CEO of the Lowcountry Food Bank.  Osborne, selected after a national search, will lead the local fight against hunger in 10 coastal counties of the Palmetto State.  With more than 30 years of professional nonprofit experience, he most recently served as vice president of International Programs and Operations at CARE USA, where he served in executive leadership roles for two decades. “Nick Osborne is the right person to lead the Lowcountry Food Bank into the future. His depth of humanitarian experience and proven ability to drive results are critical to the future success of the LCFB,” said retiring Food Bank president Pat Walker.

Dunn to retire.  Susan Dunn, longtime legal director of the ACLU of South Carolina who has more than four decades of service as a civil rights lawyer, will retire at the end of May, according to a press release. “Thanks to Susan, the ACLU of South Carolina has been at the forefront of the most important civil liberties fights of our time, ensuring access to the ballot, protecting LGBTQ equality and reproductive rights, and ending the criminalization of poverty, to name just a few,” said Frank Knaack, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina. “Susan has made South Carolina a more just and equitable place for all.”

Moratorium efforts to continue.  State lawmakers are expected to renew efforts to ban offshore oil and gas exploration as well as seismic testing, according to this article in Statehouse Report. Read more about efforts by state and nonprofit officials.

•  Have a comment?  Send to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com