Posted: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3:02 pm

Four community members will be honored for their humanitarian deeds Jan. 16 at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Brunch at MTSU’s James Union Building.

Three Jerry Anderson Humanitarian Awards will be presented along with a Jerry Anderson Hero recipient, Charlie Sims of Murfreesboro. The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
Sims risked his own life to pull a neighbor woman from her West Street burning apartment on Nov. 21.

Dr. Gloria Bonner, director of MTSU’s Office of Community Engagement and Support, will receive the Anderson Award for education. Bonner, former dean of the College of Education and Behavior Science, works to support MTSU’s overall mission as it relates to addressing the ever-growing needs of both MTSU and the surrounding community at large.

Lewis Tigg Jr. will receive the Anderson Humanitarian Award for community service. Tigg recently retired as pianist and choir leader at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church following 56 years of service.

Winsie Gail Randall will be honored as the Anderson Humanitarian Award winner for military service.

Randall was the first African-American female in the state of Tennessee to be promoted to the top non-commissioned officer rank of chief master sergeant.

The Anderson Awards were established in memory of former football star Jerry Anderson who drowned May 27, 1989, after saving two young boys from drowning in Stones River near Riverdale High School. On Oct. 31, 1989, the story of his heroism and death was aired on the TV show, “Rescue 911.”

Anderson had previously saved some trapped motorists from floodwaters in Tulsa on Memorial Day 1988.

A Central High graduate, he played football on the Oklahoma Sooners 1975 national championship team and with the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League. A knee injury ended his career.

The annual MLK Brunch is sponsored by the Murfreesboro branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and by MTSU’s Department of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs.

State Rep. Brenda Gilmore, of Nashville, is guest speaker for the event.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17kgWT1gcQ