Elizabeth Colbert Busch to chair Riley award committee

CHARLESTON, SC – Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., is the namesake of a new award denoting his 15-year tenure as honorary chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Business and Professional Breakfast, an event he co-founded in 2000 along with then YWCA Greater Charleston’s executive director, Christine O. Jackson, first cousin to Coretta Scott King, wife of the slain civil rights leader.

Elizabeth Colbert Busch, director of business development for the Clemson University Restoration Institute, will chair the committee to decide the inaugural recipient of the annual award sponsored by the YWCA.

“The Joseph P. Riley Jr. Vision Award will go to a corporation, institution or individual whose model corporate citizenship reflects outstanding community service and commitment to diversity,” said Colbert Busch. “This award exemplifies what most South Carolinians already know, that a business that values, appreciates, supports and engages with community is good business.”

The Riley Award presentation is set for Tuesday, January 20, 2015, at the MLK breakfast, co-sponsored by the City of Charleston and the YWCA, 7:30 a.m., at the Charleston Marriott Hotel, 170 Lockwood Boulevard. The breakfast is a signature event of the YWCA’s 43rd Annual MLK Celebration, considered South Carolina’s largest tribute to Dr. King.

A first event of its kind in the nation, the Charleston-based MLK celebration was established in 1972, following Dr. King’s April 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Upon his election as mayor in 1975, Mayor Riley assumed a leading role in the MLK Celebration.

“Our celebration annually engages more than 30,000 celebrants, including some 700 top corporate and civic leaders who attend the MLK breakfast, due in large measure to Mayor Riley’s leadership,” said YWCA executive director Kathleen Rodgers. Some other celebration events will include the Monday, January 19, MLK Holiday Parade televised live by WCBD TV-2, and the Sunday, January 18, MLK Ecumenical Service at historic Morris Street Baptist Church, 25 Morris Street.

Inaugural donors to the Riley award include: Clemson University; The Beach Company; City Councilman William Dudley Gregorie; The Law Office of Paul E. Tinkler; Dr. Celeste and Mr. Charles W. Patrick; and Dr. David Rivers of the Medical University of South Carolina. The award is a 24” x 20” solid bronze perpetual wall plaque with a relief of Mayor Riley etched into the bronze. The award will be unveiled at a mid-November meeting of the selection committee.
For more information on the Riley Award and the MLK Business and Professional Breakfast visit www.ywca-charlestonsc.org or call the YWCA at 843-722-1644.