News Release

A radio station manager pushing to keep black music alive, a community leader bringing free lunches to the Western Addition and the founder of a youth peer mentoring group are among this year’s Unsung Hero Award winners. Eight Bay Area residents and one organization will be honored at the 18th annual Unsung Hero Awards ceremony on November 19 for selflessly giving their time and energy to improve the lives of others in the African American community. Honorees were nominated by the public and selected by committees comprised of San Francisco Public Library staff and community members.

This year’s awards ceremony will incorporate the theme “Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social and Civic Institutions,” and features entertainment from the Praise and Sign Dancers and Stepping Knights. The festivities will begin at 1 p.m. in the Koret Auditorium at the Main Library, 100 Larkin St. Local comedian Veronica Dangerfield will emcee the event. The event is free and open to the public.

This year’s Unsung Hero Award winners are:

• Terry Baruti, a music and dance instructor in Bayview Hunter’s Point who encourages African American youth to understand their roots through the arts of drumming and capoeira (Brazilian dance/martial arts).
• Marian Davis Fields, a nurse at the Bayview Hunter’s Point Adult Day Health Center who advocates for the health and well-being of underrepresented individuals in the African American community. She often visits seniors on her own time to make sure they have food and medication.
• JJ, the self-sacrificing director of KPOO 89.5 FM in San Francisco who has kept black music and its legacy alive in the Bay Area.
• Carol Lugo, a supporter of the fight against AIDS who has raised money for the AIDS Walk of San Francisco for the past 10 years in memory of her brother who died of the deadly disease. She also raises funds for an AIDS orphanage in her native Cape Town, South Africa. She resides in Bayview Hunter’s Point.
• Larry Moody, founder of Community Partners for Schools, a youth peer mentoring group in East Palo Alto. He is also the director of a ministry that provides support for foster care children and has developed a network of support for low income families by connecting them with successful businesspeople and college interns.
• Crystal White, a busy wife and mother of three who makes time to advocate for the children in her Bayview Hunter’s Point community. She volunteers daily at George Washington Carver Academic Elementary School, performing an assortment of tasks, such as serving as a crossing guard and doing office work, among others.
• Van Cedric Williams, a social studies teacher at Gloria R. Davis Middle School in Bayview Hunter’s Point and organizer of the “Gentlemen’s Club,” a mentoring group consisting of 14 boys. The boys learn about the importance of education, brotherhood, leadership, community commitment and respect.
• Adrian Williams, the volunteer director of the Village Project who has brought a free summer lunch program and a reading enrichment program to children in the Western Addition.
• Golden Gate Section of the National Council of Negro Women, a group of dedicated women who have been instrumental to the success of the Unsung Heroes program since 1988. They have served on the nomination committee and hosted the annual reception, among other important tasks. This is the first organization to receive an Unsung Hero Award.