Mayor Thomas Menino honored five Boston residents, including a Boston University alumnus, for their work in the community yesterday at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester.
The eighth annual African-American Awards honored Leonard Christmas, Rev. John Matthew Borders, George “Chip” Greenidge, Mabel Graham and Gareth Kinkead Jr. for work that Menino said “made a difference in the quality of life in our city.”
Menino introduced the Awards in 1994 as a celebration of Black History Month.
“The diversity of our city is the strength of our city,” he said.
Graham, a Mattapan resident since 1967, started the Mattapan Civic Improvement Association, an organization that informs residents about matters of importance, including public safety.
“I couldn’t do this by myself,” Graham said, “And I would like to thank MCIA.”
Greenidge is the founder and executive director of the National Black College Alliance, which informs high school students of historically black schools in the South.
“African-American achievement is powerful,” said Greenidge, one of Ebony magazine’s 30 Young Leaders to Watch in the Year 2000. “We as a people have done so much. We are lucky to have a mayor that recognizes that.”
Borders, a graduate of the Boston University School of Theology, became the minister of the Morning Baptist church in 1981 and currently hosts “The Beacon of Light,” a local Boston radio show.
“This is only possible because I serve the greatest church in America, the Morning Baptist church,” he said to the audience that included several of his parishioners. Borders called Menino the greatest mayor in the United States.
The Awards recognized the 85-year-old Christmas with a Lifetime Achievement Award. After World War II, he became a government inspector at Raytheon in Lowell. After his retirement in 1986 from the Defense Logistics Agency, he became a member of the RSVP Advisory Council Board and is currently a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Council for the Area Agency on Aging.
“I am accepting this award,” Christmas said, “for all those people that do volunteer work like I do.”
Kinkead’s daughter, Gloria, accepted his award on his behalf.
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