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11th Annual 200+ Scholars Breakfast Will Honor Area Youth
 

Staff Report

New Journal and Guide

  About 350 academically achieving black male high school graduates will get the kind of recognition May 17 that's normally reserved for African-American athletes: their own honors affair.
      The occasion will be the 11th Annual 200+ Scholars Breakfast, starting at 9 a.m., for the first time at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. The event honors black males who are graduating with a 3.0 or better grade point average from the region's public and private high schools.
       “We want to send up a collective shout-out for these scholars,” said George Crawley, president of the HAMPTON ROADS COMMITTEE OF 200+ MEN INC., which has honored more than 3,200 young black males since 1998. "It's our way of telling the world, yes, there are pressing problems facing young black males, but there are those who are excelling, sometimes in the face of great odds."
      Crawley said the youngsters will receive a specially minted 200+ Scholars medallion and items in a goodies bag.  
     More than 1,100 individuals attended last year's breakfast, which was held for the first time in the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton after several years at the Chesapeake Conference Center. 
     Tony Harris, co-anchor of the morning edition of CNN Newsroom, will be the keynote speaker. A former radio disc jockey in Baltimore, Harris joined CNN in 2004 after anchoring stints in Baltimore and Atlanta. He has also been a New York correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and a host for a celebrity news segment for HBO. He has covered such stories as the return of democracy in Haiti, the effects of the Gulf War Syndrome on American soldiers, and a human smuggling business stretching from Hong Kong to San Francisco's Chinatown.  "Tough Choices," his half-hour special about teenagers in prison, won a regional Emmy.
      "We try to secure speakers with a real worthwhile message for our student honorees," said James Gray, Hampton's fire and rescue chief and chair of the 200+ Scholars Breakfast program. "We've been very fortunate in that regards."
    Indeed, a few breakfasts back, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts was so impressed with the thought of addressing several hundred African-American male honor graduates, that he said he'd be willing to come for nothing.

Posted April 23, 2008

He not only addressed the scholars, but brought along one of his sons.       

   Said Crawley of the more than 3,200 past honorees: "While we haven't been able to fully track all of the young men, we do know that many have completed their undergraduate work, returned to our community and are contributing citizens.  We use six of them as marshals who lead the processional of new scholars each year."
     A highlight of each breakfast is the awarding of scholarships -- some to cover fours years of study -- by  colleges and universities. While there have been instances in which the awards have not been made by the time of the breakfast, Crawley estimates that roughly more than $2.7 million in scholarships have been awarded at previous breakfasts.
      At this year's event, Roseann Runte, departing president of Old Dominion University, will be recognized for her unwavering support of the 200+ Scholars breakfasts and The 200+ Men organization.
      Musical selections will be rendered by Reginald Doles, 13, a Blair Middle School student with a remarkable voice; and a violin group from Park View Elementary School in Portsmouth.
       The 200+ Scholars Breakfast is part of The 200+ Men's combined education/community initiatives efforts. They include an annual three-day summer camp for boys 13 and 14 at which the youngsters take part in physical activities and a series of "straight talk" sessions dealing with various subjects; also an annual Caravan to Richmond, in which busloads of high school students and others spend a day at the state capitol, meeting with the governor and area legislators, and attending General Assembly sessions.
       There's a 200+ student chapter at Norfolk State University and pilot programs in two Norfolk high schools. The organization is also involved in mentoring, school visitations and support of community educational efforts.
       For more information about the 200+ Scholars Breakfast and to purchase tickets, call 757-455-9250 or visit: www.200plusmen.org  

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