Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast Honors Deserving Community Activists

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On Monday, January 16, Anne Arundel Community College hosted the 36th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast. The breakfast honored six Anne Arundel County residents for their support of the mission of Dr. King, including two honorees with ties to the Pasadena community.

The awardees are selected by independent organizations and commissions such as the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission and the Anne Arundel County NAACP. While the awards ceremony sought to honor and remember Dr. King, each award honored the person for whom it is named.

Ginina A. Jackson-Stevenson, a Pasadena-based attorney, was the recipient of this year’s George H. Phelps Jr. Distinguished Public Service Award presented by the Anne Arundel County NAACP.

For seven years prior to founding her own practice, Jackson-Stevenson served as a public defender in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County. For the past six and a half years, Jackson-Stevenson has operated the Law Office of Ginina A. Stevenson, which practices everything from real estate law to civil litigation. In some cases, Jackson-Stevenson also offers pro bono representation for those who need legal services but simply cannot afford the costs.

Outside her law office, Jackson-Stevenson gets hands-on by helping the youth of her community.

She and her husband, Dr. Claymon Stevenson II, have coached recreational baseball and basketball teams in Brooklyn Park for the last five years. Jackson-Stevenson also volunteers with the mock trial team at Archbishop Spalding High School and coaches moot court at the University of Baltimore.

“When dealing with the younger people, you have an opportunity to let them know that their [potential] is endless and they’re only limited by themselves. A lot of times, children don’t recognize that,” Jackson-Stevenson said of her motivation to serve a younger demographic.

Jackson-Stevenson also serves on the board of directors of the Pro Bono Resource Center in Maryland and the YWCA. The Pro Bono Resource Center regulates most of the pro bono legal activities in Maryland, while the YWCA seeks to empower women and fight against racism.

Though her legal career keeps her busy beyond measure, Jackson-Stevenson said that she feels it’s important to spend so much time helping others “because someone did it for me.”

A first-generation college graduate, Jackson-Stevenson maintained that it was her parents who made that dream a reality. “My parents sacrificed so much and they served in the community,” Jackson-Stevenson said, “so it was something that I was raised to do — to give back to people.”

Jackson-Stevenson was informed of the award while she was visiting her son, a freshman at Robert Morris University. Her reaction was one of elation. “I was very excited to get the call … we were all excited about it,” she said.

“It’s humbling,” Jackson-Stevenson said of the award. “I don’t do it for the recognition; I do it because I want to give back. To be recognized is very humbling.”

Karen Biagiotti, a fervent activist for the homeless, received this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award. The ceremony’s namesake award is presented by the City of Annapolis Human Relations Commission.

Biagiotti’s professional career began 20 years ago when she became a licensed massage therapist. She sat on the state board of chiropractors and massage therapists, and even ran a small business in Pasadena for 15 years.

In 2006, Biagiotti began volunteering with Arundel House of Hope, an organization that provides temporary and sometimes long-term relief to the homeless. In 2012, Biagiotti joined House of Hope in a more formal role, running the organization’s day-in resource center and winter relief ministry.

“The more I got involved with Arundel House of Hope, the less I did with my business and eventually, last April, I retired from massage therapy to work full time for Arundel House of Hope,” Biagiotti said.

The work she was doing at House of Hope was gratifying, and Biagiotti admitted that she thought she’d never leave. But, last summer, another opportunity presented itself.

Anne Arundel County began searching for a street outreach coordinator – a position that requires the employee to reach out to homeless people, wherever they might be, in order to offer resources and support. “When I read the job description, it was as if God was tapping me on the shoulder saying, ‘I made this for you,’” Biagiotti said. “Now I work for Anne Arundel County.”

She has since spent the winter months traveling the county to ensure that homeless people in the area are safe and able to make it through the most dangerous nights. She began her role with the county on September 30 of last year, and has already made contact with more than 80 homeless people.

Biagiotti said that her will to serve comes naturally, but much of what she learned in childhood contributes to that. Raised by her father and grandmother, Biagiotti recalled growing up poor. Her father was a taxi driver and the family couldn’t afford much.

“I can always remember my grandmother saying that no matter how bad we thought we have it, there’s always someone that has it worse,” Biagiotti said. “As a child, I could never understand that, but it always stuck with me.”

Biagiotti went through life volunteering on her own but was encouraged by a peer at church leadership class to begin working with House of Hope. “I started as a two-hour-a-week volunteer, and two hours led to a day and that just kept going from there,” Biagiotti said.

Now, Biagiotti devotes her life to helping the homeless, saving lives in the process.

She was a little confused at first as to why she was selected to receive the award, but she was speechless once its importance finally set in. “It just blows me away because I feel that what I do is nothing outside of the ordinary,” Biagiotti said. “I’m astounded that my name can even be in the same sentence as Martin Luther King Jr.”

She said she was surprised that someone took notice of her work, but for Michael J. Keller, chair of the Annapolis Human Relations Commission, and the rest of the commission, Biagiotti’s footprints in the community are impossible to miss.

“Karen Biagiotti has been the heart and soul behind the Winter Relief Emergency Shelter program since 2008,” said Keller. “She has ensured that 85 to 110 homeless people each year have enjoyed temporary shelter during the cold weather months. Having participated personally in this program as a member of my own church, I can attest to impact that it has for people who find themselves without a place to live.”

Other honorees included Michael E. Busch, Elizabeth Kinney, Darian Senn-Carter and Eric Wright Sr.

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