Before I get started, I want to apologize for making the men all pause because of my pinstriped power suit and strategically messy bun. It wasn’t their fault. Okay, now that my conscience is clear I can go ahead and hip y’all to how we turned the Chase Park Plaza Tuesday night with some of the best young movers and shakers in the STL. Wasn’t it everything I cracked it up to be? Of course it was! We had to push it back a few weeks because of how the weather tore STL up with that awful snow storm in February, but second try of The St. Louis American Foundation’s 3rd Annual Salute to Young Leaders went off without a hitch. The past, the present and the future of black St. Louis leadership was in the house as we gave a round of applause to the 2013 group of 20 under 40 who are making some serious moves in our city. I don’t want to name names because I know I’ll start forgetting people, but Michael McMillan, Tishaura Jones, Dr. Henry Givens, Kira Van Niel, Deanna Carrol, Faith Barnes, Michael Whitley (and his lovely new wife) and a whole host of other folks came through to show their support – including my unofficial spiritual advisor Rebeccah Bennett (who served as MC). And just like with each of the other years, excellence was in the building and from every avenue too – corporations and higher learning institutions to community service and politics to name a few. I want to shout out all sixty of the folks that have been branded as young leaders since we started the baby of our Salute to Excellence family and I’m not only excited to see how they will live up to their title, but I’m also anxious to see who will be selected for the class of 2014.