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Achievers Association will honor 8 Saturday

Two students to be given scholarships

WARREN — A musician, several pastors, an educator and several other community leaders will join several hundred previous honorees of the Trumbull County African American Achievers Association Hall of Fame.

The 34th annual Hall of Fame dinner will be 6 p.m. Saturday at DiVieste’s Banquet Center, 754 N. River Road NW, Warren. Money raised is used for student scholarships and for the annual African American Achievers Association festival, which is held in June every year and often kicks off the summer festival season in Warren.

Former Warrren Utilities Director Robert “Bob” Davis Jr., president of the African American Achievers Board, will be the keynote speaker at Saturday’s dinner.

Davis now works as the director of the Cleveland Department of Public Utilities. He manages 1,700 employees and overees a budget of more than $600 million. He is head of all operations within the Divisions of Cleveland Public Power, Cleveland Water, Cleveland Water Pollution Control and Utilities Fiscal Control, as well as the citywide office of Radio Communications and Cleveland’s public access channel, TV20.

He maintains a home in Warren.

“This year’s theme is respect,” Davis said. “We are paying homage to our ancestors and all the things they did to prepare us on our individual and community journey. Our aim is to reflect on the past, so we can better focus on the future.”

Davis has been involved with the African American Achievers Association since 2001.

The African American Achievers Festival and its Hall of Fame dinner were formed in 1985 by Van Williams to promote brotherhood and lessen neighborhood tensions, Davis said. The hall of fame dinner takes place on the last weekend of February’s Black History Month.

“We want to make sure there is equity and everyone is treated with the utmost respect,” Davis said.

Money raised by the dinner is used to provide two scholarships for two high school seniors graduating Trumbull schools, as well as provide funds for the the summer festival.

“The African American Achievers summer festival is bigger than it was when it started,” Davis said. “It is a homecoming event. We work to make sure young people are engaged and are participating.”

Eight people were selected from 25 nominees to be placed in this year’s hall of fame.

Honorees include: Sean Jones, a trumpeter who has played with Wynton Marsalis at the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; Stephanie L. Shaw, executive director of the Eastern Ohio Education Partnership; Jeffrey Cole, a captain with the Warren Police Department; Phillip W. Shealey, pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church in Warren; Joseph E. Walker Jr., senior pastor and co-founder of Restoration Christian Fellowship Church in Warren; Mary L. Duke, co-founder of Teen Straight Talk; Mary M. King, founder of the Step-In to Step-out line dance classes; and Charles Davis Jr.,who is a community activist and volunteer.

The two student scholarship recipients are Warren G. Harding High School seniors Jada Brown and Antwan Howard.

Brown is on track to have a 4.4 GPA while taking Advanced Placement classes and is a member of the majorette line with the Warren G. Harding Band. Howard is a musician that plays the saxophone, drums, bass guitar and piano. Brown is a member of Harding’s band program and plays for St. James COGIC Church.

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