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Sandy Springs continues MLK Day tradition
By Noreen Lewis Cochran
January
19, 2011
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Staff / Nathan Self
Last year’s recipient of the Sandy Springs Humanitarian Award, Caroline
Axt, right, hands off the trophy to this year’s winner, Melanie
Noble-Couchman, at City Hall at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. |
Last year’s recipient of the Sandy Springs Humanitarian Award, Caroline Axt, right, hands off the trophy to this year’s winner, Melanie Noble-Couchman, at City Hall at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.
Monday was a day on, not off, for about 100 attendees and celebrants at Sandy Springs City Hall during the city’s sixth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance.
“I think of this as the birthday party of Sandy Springs,” the Rev. Henry Bush, pastor of Sharon United Methodist Church, said about the city’s first official ceremony after its 2005 incorporation.
The occasion also marked the fifth annual presentation of the Humanitarian Award, presented to Melanie Noble-Couchman, the fifth female recipient of the public service honor and a 2010 finalist.
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“This is not so much the passing of the tiara,” 2010 winner Carolyn Axt said, “as it is passing on a recognition, because I so hope that even a few people in our community have been inspired to get involved in volunteerism.”
Noble-Couchman helped establish a nonprofit foundation, found temporary housing for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and currently serves on the board of directors of the Sandy Springs Education Force.
“For me, that is what this day and humanitarianism is all about,” she said in her acceptance speech. “Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.’”
Noble-Couchman said she admired the can-do attitude of her fellows.
“We are a community of neighbors helping neighbors,” she said. “I would like to accept this award on behalf of all the nonprofits in Sandy Springs because they exemplify this entrepreneurial spirit of seeing what needs to get done and doing it.”
Keynote speaker Melvin J. Emerson, the new state workforce development director, pointed out the comparisons between character traits, like King’s positive attitude and enthusiasm, and success.
“You have to work hard to be the best that you can be,” said the former Army reservist and state representative, who rebounded from two failed election campaigns. “I can’t promise you will succeed and achieve your dream, but Dr. King showed us the way.”
The Humanitarian Award finalists were 2010 and 2009 finalist Elaine Bryan, an award-winning youth counselor; Atlanta Dream cheerleader Annette Marcus and former Adaptive Learning Center Executive Director Susan
Tauber. |
