Local Legends
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast committee is pleased to recognize outstanding
community leaders who represent Dr. King’s vision and legacy: a testament that a dream is a growing reality.
Interested in nominating someone to receive a Local Legend award? Click here to learn more.
Emerging Legends
The Emerging Legend is a new award inaugurated to honor youth that are serving with distinction
in our community. It is designed to honor a youth (21 and under) for his or her volunteer efforts in
the Twin Cities. This Emerging Legend is on his or her way to becoming a Local Legend of
tomorrow. View the Emerging Legend nomination form here for more
information.
We extend an invitation to you to nominate a deserving youth.
2009 Local Legend Recipients
There have been many exceptional community activists who have been honored with
Local Legend awards over the past eight years.
Click here for a list of award recipients.
[from left-to-right] David Gholar, General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret),
Fran Heitzman, and Margaret Lovejoy.
David Gholar is a student at Roosevelt Senior High School. In 2006, his family had a tough Christmas, facing possible eviction and depending on a local food bank for food. The difficult time planted the seed for Gholar to help others. Partnering in 2007 with Urban Ventures, a Minneapolis nonprofit that receives funding from the sale of CityKid Java coffee, Gholar raised $4,500 in coffee sales -- enough to help support eight families.
Margaret Lovejoy was working as the director of an overnight shelter for families in Ramsey County when she heard a young child ask his mother where he was going to find her when he got off the school bus. Lovejoy was troubled by the realization that the families she helped at night had no safe place to spend their days. She quit her job, developed a program and used her personal assets to open The Family Place – the first day center for homeless families in Ramsey County.
Fran Heitzman was a maintenance man at a local church 21 years ago when a young couple brought in a used crib they no longer needed. The church could not accept it, so Heitzman called a local social service agency, which quickly passed it to a needy family. That got him thinking that there must be a way to provide struggling families with furniture and household goods. The nonprofit Bridging was born. In the two decades since, the organization has grown dramatically and touched many lives, serving more than 46,000 families.
