11:45am | Five award recipients will be honored at 5:00pm, on January 10th, at the Long Beach City Council meeting, 333 West Ocean Blvd, as part of Peace Week —a week-long celebration leading up to the City of Long Beach’s 24th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Peace & Unity Parade Celebration, on January 14th.
The candidates have been selected for their history of volunteering, community work, or support in areas of peace making, nonviolence, and community support/building. “The Peace Maker Award acknowledges the spirit in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. demonstrated compassionate, non-violent strategies toward peace and community building, which are ideas we value in the City of Long Beach”, said Sixth District Councilman Andrews.
This year honorees include King Chan, Jessica Quintana, Darryl Smith, Food Bank of Southern California, and Ralphs Food 4 Less.
About the Honorees
King Chan, the youth honoree brings his own unique style to advocacy work. Raised by Malaysian immigrant parents in Long Beach, California, King’s introduction to activism began with a successful grassroots effort to halt the demolition of his city’s biggest library. He has spoken to various audiences on topics related to gang warfare, homelessness, human relations, and societal oppressions. His repertoire includes being a former Gay-Straight Alliance Network statewide advocacy member, partnering on various campaigns with the California Department of Education and the Trevor Project, and serving as a program facilitator on behalf of the California Conference for Equality & Justice (CCEJ).
Jessica Quintana, Community Female Honoree, As the key leader of the Centro CHA organization, she provides supervision for Centro CHA staff, contract consultants, and oversees all daily agency operations. She provides leadership to the board of directors and represents the agency in community matters. She also participates on local and regional boards and commissions, and creates meaningful bridges for the organization with local elected officials, government staff, and partnering agencies to serve the Long Beach community.
Darryl Smith, Community Male Honoree, is a community youth football coach that has perfected skills for community involvement in advocating on behalf of youth, at-risk human beings and the disenfranchised. His skill in mentoring, counseling, and being a leader has allowed him to volunteer his services for the past 10 years. He has acted upon reformation and structure toward lifting awareness in education and building a healthy community.
Food Bank of Southern California, Community Group Honoree has been providing food to impoverished children, families, and seniors residing in Los Angeles County since 1975. Their dominate focus on the “poorest of the poor” neighborhoods in downtown Los Angeles, Compton, San Pedro, South Central, Watts, and Long Beach, provides highly nutritious food to at least 250,000 people each week; or 2.5% of L.A. County’s population. They continue to be the largest distributor of fresh produce of any foodbank in the state; annually distributing over 6.5 million pounds of fresh produce from Salinas, Ventura, and Imperial Valley. Since 2010, they have continued to support the monthly 6th District Food Distribution serving hundreds of families in the mid town area.
Ralphs Food 4 Less, Community Business, has continued to sponsor numerous peace and community building events throughout the City of Long Beach, including the Annual City of Long Beach Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace & Unity Parade and Celebration, in which they have sponsored for the past 10 years.