News and Events
BBEO Awards $15,000 in Scholarships
The recipients of the Broward Black Elected Officials 2011 scholarship
were announced recently at a special ceremony at First Baptist Piney Grove Church of Lauderdale Lakes.
The BBEO 2011 Scholars will be attending such prestigious bastions of higher education
as Stanford University and Brown University.
“We are gratified and honored to have such a diverse and elite group of
students selected to receive scholarships from our organization,” said State
Rep. Hazelle P. Rogers, a longtime BBEO board member. “They demonstrated through
their scholastic achievements and community
service that they were worthy of being accepted by some of the country’s top
colleges. These students are most deserving of any assistance we can give them
as they seek to improve themselves and, ultimately, improve our communities as
well-educated citizens,” Rep. Rogers said.
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BBEO board members Rep. Rogers and Lauderhill
Commissioner Hayward J. Benson, Jr., left, and Lauderdale Lakes Commissioner Levoyd
Williams and State Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, right, with BBEO 2011 Scholars.
The 2011 GALA
Superstar comedian Guy Torry was honored for his charity work and gave a special performance at the sold-out
BBEO sixth annual Black History Month Gala held in February at the Hard Rock LIVE concert hall.
The event raised funds for BBEO's scholarship fund, known as the BBEO Scholars Program, and additional funds for outreach programs.
The 2011 Gala presented community service awards in the categories of community, corporate, political and special awards.
This year’s honorees were community leaders Beatrice Louissaint and Margaret Haynie Birch; corporations Florida Power & Light and Harvey, Covington & Thomas; political leaders State Representative Hazelle P. Rogers and State Rep. Joseph A. Gibbons with special awards going to Guy Torry and ABC-10 Anchor Calvin Hughes for his reporting from Haiti.
With a comedy performance as a first for the much anticipated gala, the BBEO event was a memorable finale to the month-long spate of Black History Month events in South Florida. The 700 dressed-to-the-teeth guests enjoyed the music of Fusion band and then laughed hysterically at Guy Torry’s rift on modern life from non-existent “customer service” to the “blogging rage” to “keeping romance alive in long marriages.”
Particularly funny was when Torry picked a random married audience member to ask her about the state of her love life. The audience member turned out to be the wife of newly installed BBEO Chair, Mayor Eric Jones of West Park, who is also a pastor.
Guy Torry, brother to comedian Joe Torry, soared to fame a decade ago as host of the touring “The Kings of Comedy” show. Since then he has starred in such films as “Slow Burn,” “Stuck on You,” “American History X,” “Runaway Jury” and “The Last Stand.” He has appeared on or hosted numerous television shows.
The Gala has been produced since 2007 by Roy H. Campbell, a South Florida special events producer who has created events with such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks, Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle and Will Smith.
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