WS Chronicle

Because of their outstanding community service, the Rev. Dr. Nathan Edward Scovens, pastor of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, and Randon Blackmon Pender, president and a charter member of the Winston Salem Black Chamber of Commerce, have been selected to receive top honors at The Chronicle’s 30th Annual Community Service Awards Gala later this month.

Dr. Elwood L. Robinson, the new chancellor of Winston-Salem State University, will be the keynote speaker at the event.
Scovens and Pender were chosen by a committee after receiving nominations for those honors. The committee also poured over nominations for about several more categories of honors.

The awards were created “to simply recognize people in this community who are making a difference,” said Chronicle Publisher Ernie Pitt.
Under Scovens’ leadership, Galilee Missionary Baptist moved onto a new 28-acre campus. He is a chaplain for the Winston-Salem Police Department and a member of the NAACP Legal Redress Committee, Communities in Schools Board, Board of Directors for the Bethesda Center and Board of Directors for the United Way. He was also recently was selected to receive the Religious Leader Award by the men of the Delta Sigma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Pender is the president of the Winston-Salem State University Brown Alumni Chapter, a member of Chi Eta Phi Inc.’s Chi Chi Chapter, the chairwoman of the Forsyth County Democratic Party 81st Precinct , a volunteer and community organizer for the Oak Summit and Country Club Annex Community, a member of the Womens Fund of the Winston Salem Foundation and member of Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church where she is a Sunday School Teacher.
Other awards that will be presented include:

*Curator of the Arts: Chadwick G. Cheek, owner of Elephant in The Room.

*Lifetime Achievement: Lenwood Davis, Evelyn Terry, Nancy Young and Harry Davis.

*Organization of the Year: The Ministers’ Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity.

*Community Service: Claudia Schaefer, Linda Sutton and Patricia Sadler.

* Special Recognition: Children’s Law Center

The event started as a luncheon then grew.

“It got to be so big that we had to have it at night and on the weekend,” Pitt said. “We have a community filled with great people who are doing and have done great things. We feel now as we always felt, that we need to pat more people on the back who have gone above and beyond the ordinary.”
Pitt said The Chronicle has had help with the gala.

“The only way that we are able to do this is because of the support of major corporations, who believe, as we believe, that when you have great people, you have a great community.”

The awards will be presented Saturday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the M.C. Benton Convention Center. Tickets are $30, and include a six-month subscription to The Chronicle. Tickets are available by calling 336-722-8624, ext. 100, or by picking them up at The Chronicle, 617 N. Liberty St.