It was the first $1 million Salute — the first time since the St. Louis American Foundation produced its inaugural Salute to Excellence in Education gala in 1994 that the foundation and its partners and sponsors crested the $1 million mark in student scholarships and educator grants.
The signature 2018 awardees — Lifetime Achiever Johnetta Randolph Haley and Stellar Performer Michael P. McMillan — offered admirably concise and powerful comments near the end of the sold-out event at America’s Center on Saturday, September 29, but it was still a full evening. There were so very many scholarships to award.
“Service to others, that’s what my life has been,” Haley said to an adoring audience of more than 1,300. And service to others defines Salute: service to the next generation as universities, colleges and sponsors helped the foundation invest $1 million in their futures.
“Our mission as a foundation is based on the wisdom of our esteemed leader, Malcolm X, who taught us that ‘education is our passport to the future … for tomorrow belongs to people who prepare for it today,’” said Donald M. Suggs, president of the foundation and publisher and executive editor of its namesake newspaper.
Two new colleges offered foundation scholarships in 2018: the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College and Vatterott College. A community partner offered a major new investment: the Regional Business Council committed $12,500 in scholarships to students in business-related fields in honor of McMillan. An existing scholarship partner, Maryville University, offered its second annual foundation scholarship. And the naming sponsor of the annual School of the Year, Monsanto, now has a new name: Moline Elementary School in the Riverview Gardens School District became the foundation’s first Bayer School of Excellence.
Other than that, the foundation’s established partners – starting with its first partner, the University of Missouri-Columbia – did what they do at Salute: invest in the future of striving youth. It’s become a long list of partnering universities: Mizzou, Southeast Missouri State University, Harris-Stowe State University, Missouri State University, Webster University, St. Louis Community College, Fontbonne University, Maryville University and University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Wells Fargo Advisors also gifted 18 laptops or iPads to scholars. And longtime Salute partner Anheuser-Busch contributed $35,000 in “Better World” Scholarships.
Since 1994, the foundation, together with its education partners, fostered over $6 million in scholarships and community grants, Suggs reported.
Along with the scholars, a number of area educators were lauded and awarded grants before the signature awardees were given a chance to speak. Andrea Scott received the 2018 PNC Bank Early Childhood Educator award, and Kurly Taylor was named SEMO Counselor of the Year. Eight area educators were recognized for their contributions to the learning community: Chauncey Granger, Kim Haywood, Bernard Long Jr., Dorthea B. Nevils, Raymond K. Robinson, Dr. Leslie Thomas-Washington, Tamara D. Wells and Rhea M. Willis.
With everyone in the audience concerned about the future of the U.S. Supreme Court, it was powerful to hear Lifetime Achiever Johnetta Randolph Haley remember hearing of the Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education and taking on the enormous challenge and risk of integrating public schools in the St. Louis region. In Kirkwood, 1,500 people signed a petition that “they didn’t want me or the others,” Haley said of being in the first cohort of black teachers to teach white kids.
Her former student, Stan Ford, now a professor of Piano at Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, gave insight into the tough woman who overcame those obstacles. “Mrs. Haley made it clear that my purpose was much greater than the obstacles,” Ford said. “So: get over it.”
Haley would go on to teach music at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, which has a scholarship in her name, and to direct the SIUE East St. Louis Center.
Stellar Performer Michael P. McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, walked onstage after video remarks by the founder and chairman of one of the most lucrative black-owned business in the United States, David L. Steward of World Wide Technology (who co-chaired the gala with Michael F. Neidorff, chairman and CEO of Centene Corporation).
Steward said that McMillan’s work in early childhood education and workforce development at the Urban League shows “what is possible in these very challenging communities.” Steward helped warm up the crowd to stand for McMillan’s first ovation, though he would earn his second standing ovation all on his own.
“We in St. Louis are at the epicenter of a new civil rights movement, and the eyes of the nation turn on us every August” – at the anniversary of the Ferguson uprising — “and ask us, ‘What have you done?’” said McMillan.
McMillan boldly told the gala audience what we should do.
“I challenge all of us in this room to commit to education,” he said.
And: “On November 6, I want each person in this room to get people out to vote as if you were on the ballot yourself. When we vote, when we mobilize, we can make a difference.”
Platinum Sponsors: Anheuser-Busch, Bayer, Centene Charitable Foundation, Maryville University, Wells Fargo Advisors. World Wide Technology and The Steward Family Foundation.
Gold Sponsors: BJC Healthcare/Barnes-Jewish Hospital/St. Louis Children’s Hospital, PNC Bank, Southeast Missouri State University, The University of Missouri-Columbia.
Silver Sponsors: Barnes Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing, The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Bronze Sponsors: McCormack Baron Salazar/Urban Strategies, Missouri State University, SAK Construction, Washington University in St. Louis.
Corporate Sponsors: Advantage Capital, Edward Jones, Enterprise Holdings, The Regional Business Council, St. Louis Community College.
Patron Sponsors: Ameren Missouri, A.T. Still University, Harris-Stowe State University, Saint Louis University, School District of University City, Tri-Tec, Vatterott College, Webster University.
Educator Grant Sponsor: Missouri Lottery.
Attendance Prize Sponsors: Bubbling Brown Sugar Productions, the official travel partner of the Salute to Excellence, and Vincent’s Jewelers, the official jeweler of the Salute to Excellence.
