Anita and Jerry Zucker, Katie Stagliano to receive Riley awards
December 9, 2015
The YWCA of Greater Charleston announces Anita Zucker, InterTech Group, Inc. Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and her late husband Jerry Zucker, both of the Zucker Family Foundation, to receive the Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Vision Award for model corporate citizenship. Katie Stagliano, 17-year-old founder and Chief Growing Officer of Katie’s Krops, a Lowcountry-based nonprofit that inspires youth-run gardens to feed the hungry, will also get the award named for the Charleston Mayor.
The awards will be presented at the 16th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Business and Professional Breakfast on Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 7:30 a.m. at the Charleston Marriott Hotel. Sponsored by the YWCA and the City of Charleston. The breakfast is a signature event of the 44th annual MLK Celebration, considered the state’s largest tribute to the slain civil rights leader. Mayor Riley co-founded the MLK Breakfast in 2000 along with then YWCA Executive Director Christine O. Jackson, and is serving his sixteenth and final year as Honorary Chairman of the event. For details visit: www.ywca-charlestonsc.org.
Anita and Jerry Zucker are well known civic pillars who have generously supported numerous groups and local institutions such as the Coastal Community Foundation, the Saul Alexander Foundation, the Jewish Endowment Fund, MUSC, College of Charleston, The Citadel, and more. Jerry Zucker passed away in 2008.
Stagliano started as a third grade student with a cabbage seed, growing a cabbage in her backyard garden that fed 275 people. Today, Katie’s Krops has more than 80 gardens in 30 states and offers grants for students who want to start their own community gardens.
“We wanted to show Mayor Riley the bench he has left behind, the people who will continue his work,” saysElizabeth Colbert Busch, director of Business Development for Clemson University Restoration Institute, and chair of the award selection committee explaining the cross-generational appeal of the Riley award honorees.
‘The bench’ is also Colbert-Busch’s nickname for the award selection committee of millennial generation leaders she assembled to decide the Riley Award honorees on Thursday, November 12, including: E. Grier Allen, CEO, BoomTown; Marcus Amaker, Graphic Designer, Marcus Amaker Design; Daja Dial, Miss South Carolina 2015; Quinetha Frasier, Major Gifts Officer, Trident United Way; Victoria Hansen, News Anchor, WCIV TV-4; Danielle Hardee, Secretary, Board of Directors, YWCA of Greater Charleston; Jack Maybank, Board Member, Maybank Industries Group; Barbara L. Melvin, Senior Vice President, South Carolina State Ports Authority; Tommy Preston, Jr. Director, National Strategy & Engagement, Government Operations, Boeing South Carolina; Joseph P. Riley III, Brokerage Director, The Carolinas Financial Network; W. Bratton Riley, Business Broker, Maybank Industries Group; Erica Wright, Director, Charleston Young Professionals, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.
“Much of the MLK Breakfast’s success is attributed to Mayor Riley’s leadership,” said YWCA Board President Kerri Forrest. “More than 600 top corporate, civic and clergy leaders attended the MLK Breakfast in 2015.” For information about the MLK Celebration visit www.ywca-charlestonsc.org or call the YWCA 843-722-1644.
