DEARBORN — After giving away $14,000 in scholarship money January 25 at Byblos Banquet Hall in Dearborn to students from throughout the region at their group’s ninth annual Martin Luther King Day celebration, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) officials said to just wait until next year’s event.

First place ADC Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Award winner Abbas Alawieh reads his winning essay to the audience at ADC-Michigan’s ninth annual awards ceremony January 25. Other scholarship recipients, high school seniors from throughout Southeast Michigan stand behind him. See more photos from the event on page 28 of the Arabic section.

ADC Regional Director Imad Hamad said the group’s tenth anniversary Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Dinner will be bigger and better than ever. They hope to hold it at the new American Arab Center for Civil and Human Rights (ACCHR), an education and resource center currently being constructed by the civil rights organization in Dearborn.

At this year’s event, which gathered an impressive group of civil rights figures and elected officials, Hamad said he hopes the group will offer more scholarship money in 2009 if ADC-Michigan can attract more sponsors for the program.

Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly said the event and other programs put together by ADC-Michigan’s small staff each year are inspiring.

“We focus on the differences between people everyday, but we don’t celebrate them,” he said.

“I give credit to ADC for showing the way…  The staff at ADC does an incredible amount of work with a few very dedicated members.”

Former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Chavis keynoted the event, intended to uplift youth and celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and the activism he inspired.

Chavis worked with King himself as part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference decades ago, helped organize the Million Man March as part of the Nation of Islam in 1995 and currently co-heads the Hip Hop Summit Action Network.

He said extraordinary progress has been made improving race relations and securing the rights of minorities and ethnic groups over time.

But “we still have a long way to go,” he said.

“I want to make sure that we are in solidarity, not just in words, but in deeds.”

He said he is optimistic about the consciousness and tolerance of the next generation.

“Young people today don’t harbor and don’t carry as much weight as adults of my generation with regards to race.”

Chavis commended the local community on overcoming a racially tense history.

“Dearborn has made a lot of progress. Somebody’s been working hard here. This is an inclusive place.”

The first place winner of the program’s essay contest, which serves as a basis for distribution of the scholarships, was Fordson High School senior Abbas Alawieh.

Alawieh, 16, who is no stranger to receiving awards from local Arab American organizations for his activism and volunteering, received a standing ovation from the crowd of about 500 after reading his essay.

Written in the form of a sermon-like, poetic letter to Martin Luther King, the essay describes the PATRIOT Act and other government actions since 2001 as an “evolved set of Jim Crow laws.”

“You would not stand for this Dr. King,” the letter read.

“I, along with the entire Arab American community, look to you for guidance, now more than ever… Just as you preached the truth of your time, I want this letter to preach the truth of my time.”

In addition to the scholarships, a Young Leadership Award was presented to Melinda Bazzy, 17, a local activist for awareness about autism, and a Young Achievement Award to tae kwan do champion students from the Koubeissi  Tae Kwon Do School in Dearborn.

Nawal Hamadeh, founder and president of Hamadeh Educational Services, which manages award-winning charter schools in Dearborn Heights and Detroit, received an Educator of the Year award.

Ed Egnatios, of The Skillman Foundation, a sponsor of the program, said he was deeply impressed with the event and the way it instills “a giving spirit in our young people.”

“It was spectacular. Not good—spectacular,” he said. “The way young people are being congratulated.”

The Skillman Foundation is a private grantmaking group that contributes to underprivileged Detroit-area neighborhoods with the high concentrations of children.

Egnatios said the ADC event represents a “rare connection of the heart of different foundations.”

“We need these young people,” he said.

“I take this as another badge of honor,” said Hamad about Egnatios’ excitement about the event and the foundation’s first sponsorship of the scholarship dinner.

ADC received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Detroit Branch NAACP at the dinner and the 13 award-winning students received commendations from Michigan State Rep. Gino Polidori, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, State Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.

Polidori, Ficano, Michigan Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, Homeland Security Department civil rights officer Dan Sutherland, Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett and several judges and other elected and appointed officials all attended the dinner.

Fahad Mohamad Kafoud, a deputy ambassador from the State of Qatar, which has played a major part in the construction of the ACCHR made a special trip to the area to attend the event.

“Just wait and see the tenth anniversary for the same occasion next year,” Hamad said about the growth in notoriety of the scholarship dinner.

“By then we hope to increase our sponsors and increase our scholarships.”