This year’s award recipients included Brigadier General Terrence A. Adams, a six-time commander who currently serves as the Special Assistant for Cyber Effects Operations, based at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Also acknowledged was Kimberly Jeffries Leonard, the current president of The Links Foundation, Incorporated. Dr. Prudence Pollard, a vice-provost at Oakwood University, a Seventh-day Adventist HBCU in Huntsville, Alabama, was recognized for her particular contributions around health. Pollard was instrumental in the development and completion of the Community Health Action Clinic, and mobile food service, both aimed at providing services and healthy foods for underserved and resourced areas.
Dr. Calvin B. Rock, at 92, a former long-standing president of Oakwood University and ministry administrator for the Adventist Church, joked that he wasn’t sure how he came to be nominated for the award. However, at his age, he thought it best not to decline the honor. His modesty notwithstanding, through 63 years of service—including 26 with his non-profit Operation Reachback—he has coordinated medical, educational, office management, and construction endeavors in 13 African countries, dug wells in West Africa, and supported orphanages in East Africa. He is an author and speaker on matters regarding curative and preventive aspects of social justice.
United States Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black offered the invocation for the occasion, noting that in the final analysis Jesus will want to know how His servants answer six questions:
Did you feed the hungry?
Did you offer drink to the thirsty?
Did you welcome in the stranger, the foreigner?
Did you clothe the naked?
Did you take care of the sick?
Did you visit the incarcerated?
In order to be considered for the award each recipient has to have logged at least 4,000 volunteer hours, and be nominated to the Low-Country Rice Project, according to Dr. Kim Cliett-Long. Cliett-Long is the certified representative of The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.