2016 Growing The Dream Charlotte MLK Luncheon @ JCSU 1-16-16 by Jon Strayhorn

 

The annual MLK Growing the Dream event is, as the City of Charlotte puts it on its website, “designed to recognize the unsung heroes of our community. Service is the very purpose of life. It is the rent we pay for living and  these are the grassroots citizens in every community that seek to serve and not be seen.  These heroes are the cafeteria workers, single parents, children and family advocates, social workers, bus drivers and servant leaders.”

Sponsors allow the light luncheon event to be free to those who reserve places.

More information about the event is on the City of Charlotte’s website here.

 

2016 Awards Luncheon, Charlotte

 

2015 Awards Luncheon, Charlotte

 

2014 Awards Luncheon, Charlotte

 

The first Growing the Dream event in Charlotte was held in 2014, but had deeper roots. An article at the Beanstalk Foundation reprises how Detroit educator H. Allen Smith, who joined CMS as a zone superintendent in 2013, began the Growing the Dream event in northeast Denver. An advance story on the 2013 Denver event includes a video interview with Smith. The site also has a report on the 2012 Denver event.