This morning, as hundreds gathered for a breakfast for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, two educators and four people who serve hospitals received honors for being — in King’s words — "drum majors" for community service.
South Bend Mayor Stephen Luecke and Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood presented the "Drum Major" awards to people from their cities during the breakfast at Century Center.
South Bend
Margo DeMont is director of community health enhancement for Memorial Hospital. She serves in organizations ranging from La Casa de Amistad to the South Bend Community School Corp.’s control panel and Early College program to the LaSalle Square Steering Committee.
George W. McCullough Jr. was a star athlete at Washington High School, then returned in 2001 as its principal, a tenure in which the Medical Science/Allied Health program came to the school. Before that, he was principal of Riley High School while the new Riley was built. In 1998, he won the National Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation. In 2003, he was Principal of the Year for District II from the Indiana Association of Secondary School Principals.
Warren Outlaw grew up in South Bend and graduated from Washington. He was associate director of the University of Notre Dame’s Educational Talent Search program from 1980 to 1983 and then the program’s director until August 2010 — a time when the program helped more than 4,300 local students enroll in post-secondary schools. He has served on many local boards.
Mishawaka
José Alvarez, a native of Colombia, has been the diversity officer at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center for five years. Before that, he had a long career in banking. He often uses his dual skills in English and Spanish to help with a variety of initiatives in the community. He has served on a long list of boards for nonprofit organizations, from the United Way of St. Joseph County to the Par Putters Golf Club.
Bettye Green has been an associate of Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center for more than 34 years. As a community outreach nurse, she is passionate about educating others, particularly senior citizens and the needy. She’s a breast cancer survivor who has worked to raise awareness of the disease among minority women and even served on the President’s National Action Plan Against Breast Cancer. She has been chairwoman for 12 years of African American Women-in-Touch.
Dennis Lee volunteers as an "ambassador courier" at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, where he escorts guests to patient’s rooms, makes deliveries, greets guests at the information desk and does just about anything he’s asked to do. His service there won him a $1,000 award from the Wal-Mart Foundation, which he donated to the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center.
