Dinner with family or friends is always fun. If there is one thing that really goes hand in hand with good food it’s music. A likeness for music is such a universal feeling. So when you mix an awesome menu with some really great music, what do you get? A fine dining experience starts and ends with the ambiance provided by the place. You will get to enjoy a journey back in time with the lush sounds of old and contemporary Jazz music while savoring your perfectly prepared meal, while thanking our award recipients for all the hard work they do in the community.
2023 Award Recipients
Dr. Alma S. Adams
The National Spirit of Excellence Award
Dr. Alma S. Adams was elected to her fifth full term representing the 12th Congressional District of North Carolina on
November 3, 2022. After winning a special election in November 2014, Congresswoman Adams was sworn in immediately
as the 100th woman elected to the 113th Congress.
Representative Adams serves on the Committee on Education & The Workforce and the House Committee on Agriculture.
She serves on the subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development and is Ranking Member on the
Subcommttee on Workforce Protections. Additionally, she serves on The House Agriculture subcommittee on Nutrition,
Foreign Agriculture and Horticulture and the subcommittee on Farm Commodities, Risk Management and Credit.
Pat Cotham
Public Citizen of The Year
At-large Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioner Pat Cotham Life-long Catholic, 12 years of Catholic School, Graduate of The University of Missouri, BA Spanish and BJ Journalism, one daughter, Tricia Cotham who is in the NC House of Representatives, two grandsons, Elliot 12 and Ryan is nine. After a lengthy career in recruiting including a successful Executive Search Firm, Pat felt a calling to help people who have paid their debt to society, find employment after incarceration.
Working at a non-profit with her clients, Pat saw poverty, homelessness, mental health, rejection, lack of housing, transportation & racial injustice. This experience motivated her to run for at Large County Commissioner in 2012 where she continues to be the top Vote-getter by staying close to the people. Pat follows the words of MLK that “you can’t serve the people unless you know the people. You can’t know the people unless you love the people. Pat has won numerous awards
Steve Crump
The Community Impact Award
Steve Crump (born 1957) is an American journalist, documentary film producer. Steve has been honored with several Regional Emmy Awards, Four National Headliner Awards, National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Humanitarian of the Year, and the National Council of Negro Women man of the year Charlotte Chapters.
Independent Documentary Producer for Charlotte Public Television WTVI. Honors include unsung hero Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
Independent Producer for WFAE Public radio winner of a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, Green Eyeshade, National Sigma Delta Chi Public Service Award, Carolinas RTNDA Award, and national RTNDA Unity Award all for the community radio “Trust Matters”.
Edward and Gladys Hood
Faith in Action Award
Positive church members continually say “we” and not “me.”
Positive church members see their church as the “hope engine” for their community. They love Jesus and their church. They think of their church as an eternal family. For them, the weekend is another opportunity to impact and change another life.
A positive church member lives for others and to make the church great. The idea of “team” is important to them. They take their role seriously. They rarely speak negatively of people, their church, or their leadership. They understand empowerment over entitlement.
This framework of thinking is essential for the kingdom because unless the people in the church are working together with a strong Gospel focus, that church cannot accomplish all that God desires for it.
Ken Koontz
Trailblazer Award
Ken Koontz is a native-born Texan with Charlotte roots, as his mother was from Charlotte, and his father was the Texan. His mother, Loverrine Hailey Koontz joined her husband in Texas to raise their family of four children. The family returned to Charlotte for two years when Ken was in first and second grades at the old and now torn down Isabella Wyche Elementary School. The Koontz family returned to Texas where he remained through high school and his second year of college at Lamar State College of Technology, the now Lamar University.
With a constant desire to make Charlotte his home, Koontz returned to attend Johnson C. Smith University, where four of his mother’s five sisters and brothers and his two older sisters had all attended. He graduated for Johnson C. Smith in 1972 with a Bachelor’s degree in French.
Koontz is officially retired.He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church and its Men’s Choir, and is a member of the Second Ward-West Charlotte Men’s Breakfast Club.
Nasif Majeed
Distinguished Military Service Award
Majeed flew combat missions as a B-52 pilot over North Vietnam.[1] In 2018 Majeed won the general election for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He secured eighty-two percent of the vote while his closest rival, Republican Joshua Niday, secured eighteen percent.
[2] Majeed served on the Charlotte City Council for eight years, Housing Authority, Planning Commission and the Governor’s Commission on Education for Economic Growth. He is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, earning a BS in Business Administration and a Masters in Agricultural Education
Sheriff Garry L. McFadden
The Law Enforcement Award for Courage
Sheriff Garry L. McFadden was elected to serve as the 45th Sheriff of Mecklenburg County and was sworn into office on December 4, 2018. Prior to being elected as Sheriff, Garry had a distinguished 36 year law enforcement career.
Garry had one of the highest solve rates in police department history which lead to him starring in his own television series, “I Am Homicide.” The series highlights some of Garry’s biggest cases and how the perpetrators were caught.
Spurgeon W. Webber III
Award for Leadership in Medical Ethics and Professionalism
Spurgeon W. Webber III is a Our Lady of Consolation alumni and Charlotte Catholic graduate. Dr. Spurgeon W. Webber, III is a second-generation dentist and native of Charlotte, N.C. He graduated with honors from Charlotte Catholic High School and went on to attend Duke University majoring in Chemistry.
Dr. Webber was accepted into Carolinas Medical Center Advanced General Dentistry GPR program; and he received his Advanced General Dentistry Certificate in 1987.Dr. Webber has over 32 years of experience in advanced technologies dental care, dental network formation and practice
