MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — January 18th marks the 46th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Banquet in Martinsburg.
In its nearly 50 years. More than $272,000 in scholarships have been granted to area students, including those in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.
Committee member Joe Kinser talked about the opportunity to serve the community and to fellowship.
“It’s always a really great turn out,” he says. “You know, part of this event obviously is to keep this scholarship going and do what we’re able to do for the kids in this community — we have to raise money. But this is also really a celebration. The banquet itself is is a good time for people to get together, break bread, honor Doctor King’s legacy and education.”
The original scholarship amount was $250, which back in the late 1970s was seen as an amount that could get a student ‘through the doors’ of higher education, with the rest being up to them.
Last year, the committee awarded $1,000 scholarships to 12 different recipients.
Most years, there has been a keynote speaker and/or speakers who have received the scholarship in the past.
Longtime board member Pat Murphy says the scholarship banquet got started in the 1970s not long after segregation had kept people of color from eating or drinking with white people.
Those banquets in the early years provided an opportunity for community members from all different walks of life to gather together and support students.
Murphy, a guest on Tuesday’s Panhandle Live, talked about the scholarship money given from the fundraiser and gave some details about this year’s banquet.
“We work with the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation. They’ve helped us a lot.” In the past several years, the Foundation has included the scholarship in its scholarship application, which allows students to answer questions to determine eligibility for a variety of scholarships.
Applicants who might be a good fit for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship are nominated to the committee, which then has to make the choice of who ultimately receives the $1,000 scholarship.
More than a hundred students were eligible to be considered last year alone, from all three counties in the Eastern Panhandle.
As for the banquet, “It’s right around Dr. King’s birthday. It’ll be on Sunday, January the 18th at 4:00 p.m., at the Holiday Inn on Foxcroft Avenue,” according to Pat Murphy.
Tickets are $50.00. To purchase a ticket in advance, contact Sharon Curry at 304-261-4593 or Ramona Roman at 304-261-5312.
