4th Annual Jane Addams Gala at Midlands Technical College

This year's event

The 4th Annual Jane Addams Gala at MTC took place November 16, 2006, in the Academic Center Auditorium on the Airport Campus of MTC. A reception began at 7:00 pm, and the Awards Gala began at 7:30 pm.

The Awards Gala honored 10 local advocates of social equality and service. A panel of MTC Human Service faculty carefully selected and voted on the award recipients.

This year's recipients were: Charles Abercrombie, for his work with immigration; Dr. Bambi Gaddist, Executive Director of the SC HIV/AIDS Council; Nancy Barton, Executive Director of Sistercare; John Gibson, for his work with housing, the homeless, and veterans; Dr. A.V. Strong, Founder and Director of Project Gang Out; Alice Hurley, for her role in social work in education; Anton Gunn, for his work as an activist; Renete Benjamin, for outstanding student achievement; Steve Benjamin, for his work in economic empowerment; and Jim Manning, for his work with PACE (Political Action for Candidate Election).

The event also featured special appearances by the S.C. Youth Challenge Color Guard; Adjutant General Stan Spears; and Willie Clark, Gala Founder.

This student-led event was dubbed "A Musical Collage," and featured local entertainers, including Jazz musician Terence Young, The Harold Brooker Ensemble, I-Town's Finest - Irmo High School Dancers, E.L. Wright Middle School Orchestra Express, Higher Ground - Saxegotha Presbyterian Group, and poet Tavis Brunson.

The gala was free and open to the public. Donations went to the Human Services Initiatives Fund, which supports student initiatives, learning conferences, and scholarships.

How it got started

Four years ago, Willie Clark was a student in a case management class at MTC. It was the beginning of the semester, and Clark was already missing too many classes. The instructor, Adjunct Professor Judith Crocker Billingsley, had noticed that Clark was extremely shy and had a bad stuttering problem. Billingsley knew she had to try to get Clark back on track with her class.

So, she gave Clark this assignment: Complete a research project on Jane Addams, the founder of social work, and give an oral report to the class about Addams' life and work.

Billingsley was somewhat surprised with Clark's report, which he delivered with greater confidence and clearer speech than usual. After Clark made his presentation, he commented to the class, "Jane Addams sounds a lot like Professor Mary Rawls." (Rawls is the director of the Human Services program at MTC. In addition to teaching, Rawls is a great advocate of social service, and was instrumental in turning around Columbia's Roosevelt Village, which is now called the Village of Hope.)

Clark's comment got Billingsley thinking - there are so many people in the Midlands who are doing wonderful things for the community, and they deserve to be honored. So, that year, Billingsley and her students put together the first Jane Addams Gala to honor Rawls. The program has continued every year since, each year honoring a different person or persons in the community.

Billingsley said, "The first year (of the Gala), we filled half the auditorium." Each year after that, the crowd kept getting bigger. "And the fifth year, we're just going to blow it out of the college."