Pillar Awards Honor Business Execs And Upcoming Leaders

By Johania Charles, The Miami Times

Jun 29, 2021

A procession of this year’s Community Pillars, a distinguished title given to a business leader whose work supports the well-being of the larger community, was led by the rhythms of West African drums and a standing ovation at Miami-Dade County’s annual Community Pillars Awards.

The award ceremony, hosted by the Black Affairs Advisory Board’s Heritage Planning Committee, was held on Saturday, June 26, after being pushed to a virtual platform during the height of the pandemic.

Black business leaders were honored for their contribution to Miami’s economy and for paving the way for a younger generation of leaders.

Seven recipients were presented with awards at the event.

The honorees were Joy Starkey, program director for the Minority Business Development Agency Export Center, who was responsible for distributing CARES Act funding to minority-owned business in South Florida; Paola Pierre, immediate past chair of the Board of Directors for the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce of Florida; Rashad Thomas, manager of strategic partnerships and community relations for PortMiami; Danny Felton, president and CEO of Oasis at Miami Gardens; Deric Smith, CEO of Supreme Roofing and Construction; and Elder Kenneth A. Duke, chairman of the Board of Miami’s gospel radio station WMBM 1490 and pastor of the New Jerusalem Primitive Baptist Church.

“I thank you all for coming to celebrate us, but we celebrate you because we’re standing on your shoulders,” said Starkey to a room full of community leaders and some children, while accepting her award. “Whatever your vision is, whatever your God-given talent is, whatever that thing is that you just can not do, I implore you to just do it because you are the backbone of this nation.”

“We have been blessed to change the world. If we’re going to change the community, it starts with the family first,” said Felton, explaining why his business also has a family focus. “When we create a strong family we can then create a strong neighborhood, what many [people] have done is taken the ‘neighbor’ out of the hood so now we only have the 'hood' and start tearing each other down when we should be building up.”

New Jerusalem Primitive Baptist Church.

(Google Maps)

Thomas shared a similar view.

“As a community, we’re all one. It’s about community and giving back and making sure that everything you do is from the heart, not looking to do it for anything,” he said. “I’ve always been passionate about coming back to my community and creating some type of change.”

Connie Kinnard, vice president of multicultural tourism & development for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), won the distinctive Corporate Community Pillar Award on behalf of her organization.

“With tourism as the number one industry here, if we weren’t proactive in making sure tourism connects our communities, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs,” said Kinnard. “I’m so grateful to be here and be a part of that mission in connecting tourism to our community. When one community benefits from tourism, we all benefit.”

The Heritage Planning Committee has been at the helm of this award ceremony for a little more than two decades. Committee members usually nominate a leader they believe should receive such recognition then have the Black Affairs Advisory Board oversee the screening process to finalize award recipients.

Alem Richardson, recipient of the Black Hospitality Initiative’s Minority Scholarship, holds a check from the Black Affairs Advisory Board with her father and business owner, Rodrigo Richardson.

(Johania Charles for The Miami Times. )

The same process applies for the Young Pillars scholarship program extended to students through the Board. The program was suggested by Retha Boone-Fye, the Board’s program director, when she joined the team 10 years ago.

Thanks to the Black Hospitality Initiative’s Minority Scholarship, given during the ceremony with support from the GMCVB, students choosing to study in the field can be one step closer to achieving their dreams.

Alem Richardson, a young entrepreneur and future Miami Dade College student, is ready to step out of her father’s shadow of apprenticeship and into the limelight, hoping to change the stigmas associated with food and nutrition in Black communities.

Richardson was one of eight students, referred to as Young Pillars, praised at the ceremony. The other recipients were Azel Ciriaco, Danielle Montgomery, George Pickens IV, Osamega Urhoghide, Courtnee Fields, Tyrece Davis, and Tyrese Adisa.

Courtnee Fields, Alem Richardson, Azel Ciriaco and Tyrece Davis, student recipients of the Young Pillars, stand with a check./Johania Charles for The Miami Times.

(Johania Charles for The Miami Times)

Three of the Young Pillars received the Black hospitality scholarship while the other four received awards from a general scholarship fund. Each student received a $1,000 to support their educational endeavors.

“A lot of [this] is sponsorship money that goes into the pot to help feed the scholarships, like from the commissioners’ offices and private sectors and the auction are all additional funding that goes towards helping students,” said Priscilla Dames-Blake, a member of the advisory board.

Glass portraits from Soul Photography are on display for the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board silent auction during the annual Community Pillar Awards last Saturday.

(Johania Charles for The Miami Times)

The silent auction featured portraits from Soul Photography, custom-made handbags, traditional garments, gift baskets and a dorm-friendly care package for college students. The items went home with the highest bidder with the exception of the college kit, which was donated to scholarship recipients who are going away for school.

“The significance of this award to me means freedom and a new chapter of life that I'm going to be greatly supported on by all of the people on this board,” said Richardson, who recently ended her homeschooling journey through Florida Virtual Academy.

The scholarship will allow her to attend MDC for culinary arts before heading off to Florida International University for restaurant management.

“I’m overjoyed to see her receive this award because only five years ago I myself started my own business where I did pop-ups throughout the community and my daughter, although she was only 13, had started working with me at that time,” said Rodrigo, Richardson’s father and owner of The Culinary Alchemist. “It almost brought me to tears to see that because of her hard work and doing what was necessary to create this future for herself, she’s going to be able to go to college and study something that she already loves.”

Richardson recently helped her father cater a Black History Month event for District 3 County Commissioner Keon Hardemon.

“I’m hoping to create a better world for this next generation in the food industry and also connect consciousness with our food and our communities,” said Richardson. “As a black community, a lot of times, the food catered to us is not the healthiest and I look to make eating a positive experience for our community.”

She also has plans to release a coloring book to inspire young women to embrace their hair through Afrodoll, a sole proprietorship that promotes self-love.

Pickens, a recipient of the general scholarship and recent graduate from Northwestern Senior High School, hopes to impact the world in a similar way but through promoting health in minority communities.

“I’m really just grateful for this opportunity. This scholarship and the one I received from the Carey Family Foundation will assist me in furthering my education,” he said. “It will relieve some of the financial worries and fully focus on my academics and ultimately reaching my goal to become a physician.”

The future Tennessee State University has already been involved in the community through leadership positions with 5000 Role Models and the National Achievers Society. He used those platforms to speak at conferences about the importance of increasing mental health awareness in Black communities.

Pickens was able to take home the college kit.

“Every year I try to create these kits for our guests to bid on for students to go to college. It’s worth more than $300,” said Shirley Ellison, co-chair of the Heritage Planning Committee. “We do one for a male and female student recipients. It’s just a portion of some of the stuff that they have to have.”

“It’s great to see all of the hard work I put in high school and all the sacrifices my family have put in for me reflect in these awards,” said Pickens.

“Scholarship recipients don’t necessarily have to go to college, they can go to culinary school, trade school, anything as long as they focus on their education,” revealed Ellison.

Funds collected during this year’s silent auction will go towards supporting next year’s scholarship recipients and planning the next annual awards.

The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.