"Race unity is one of the most important issues in the world today. With this in mind, I was spiritually inspired to create and complete the Bridging the Gap Award."
The Awards Meaning and Symbolism
The Carbon atom, an essential element in all living things, is the focus of the
Bridging the Gap Award. In front of the four electrons in the outer layer of this
atom ride the names of each race. This provides symbolic evidence that without
these four electrons or the four races life would cease.
On the orbit of the red electron appear the words Bridging the Gap. It appears
there because some believe that Native Americans will play a major role in
uniting the people of the world.
The continents of Africa and Europe, ancestral home of the black and white race,
form the background of the white and black orbit. These two races, at unease in
America today, when united, will provide proof that humanity can tread the path
of unity.
The Ship Rock in the foreground, land mark of the Navajo's traditional homeland
in northwestern New Mexico, is called Rock with Wings. It is repeated that this
rock was climbed by people to evade an enemy and that it provided safety by
sailing across the sky. It symbolizes, to me, the safety mankind will obtain when
they climb aboard the ship of racial unity. This is all that it is.
Sincerely, Norman L. Ellig
This years Award Winners...
Mary Howard was selected for this award because of her lifelong service and
commitment to education and improved cultural and race relations in her St. Cloud
community. She has used Education and the arts as vehicles for bridging the gap
between cultures. She is also a mentor and foster care giver to at-risk children.
Howard is a psychologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and
Adjunct Faculty of St. Cloud State University. She has been a university
administrator, including holding the position of Dean and Director of an urban
campus, and an Associate Director of a regional office of the Commission of
Higher Education.
Co-founder and current Vice President of the St. Cloud Branch of the NAACP, she
is a former member of the Mayor's Economic Council of Trenton, New Jersey, and
the Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women, Washington, D.C.
She is also co-founder and past convener of both the Trenton, New Jersey, Branch
of the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce; and of the now tri state Trenton
Artists Workshop Association.
Currently, Dr. Howard is a member of the Curriculum Advisory Council for the St.
Cloud School District, Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, St. Cloud
Civil Service Board, Boy Scouts, United Way, Benton Stearns Mental Health Local
Advisory Council and is on a disaster team for the Red Cross.
Mila Llauger's efforts in educating, bringing awareness of music and the arts,
and encouraging children to come together, earned her this year's Bridging the
Gap Award.
Llauger travels across the state of Minnesota trying to bring people of different
cultures together through innovative programs and celebrations.
Her organization, EL ARCO IRIS Performing Arts School, which Llauger founded, has
been a driving force behind St. Paul's Cinco De Mayo celebration since 1991.
Currently, she is the cultural programs director for COMPAS, working two
programs; Cultural Art Presentations for at risk girls and Surviving With Art, a
women and young girls writing and performance workshop program involving battered
women shelters in St. Cloud and Marshall.
She was also the choreographer and co-founder of the Ensemble Company, San
Francisco and Chicago from 1967-1978. She has performed and directed countless
performances.
Her recent personal achievements include being a board member of NGUZO SABA,
1998-present; Heart Of The Beast Puppet And Mask Theatre Board, 1999; MSAB
Cultural Pluralism Advisory Committee, 1995-1999; Ordway Music Theatre Cultural
Advisory Committee, 1996-1999; Famine Chorus Gallery, 1995-1997; Tradiciones
Vivas Community Advisory Committee-Science Museum, 1995-1996; a panelist for the
COMPAS Community Arts Program, 1992-1994; McKnight Choreographer's Fellowship
Panel for the Minnesota Dance Alliance, 1994; Advisory Task Force Committee
member for Minnesota Center for Arts Education, 1994. Mila has recently joined
Diversity Foundation as a cultural talent consultant.
Edward Lohnes dreams of healing the racial strife between his Native American
People and other races. His efforts in racial reconciliation have earned him a
Bridging the Gap Award.
Lohnes is currently a development and recruitment manager with Peak Staffing,
Inc., one of the Twin Cities largest temporary employment agencies for
minorities.
He has served as past president of the Minnesota League of Human Rights
Commissions. He has been a long term member of several other Human and Civil
Rights Commissions in addition to the State League. He was also CEO and board
member of the North American Indigenous Games held in the Twin Cities in 1995
involving over 8,000 Native Youth in Olympic style athletic competition and
cultural activities.
Before that he was employed at the American Indian OIC in the area of job
training and placement. He came to the OIC after serving over 10 years with the
Minnesota State Department of Human Rights as an investigator and supervisor.
Lohnes is a member of Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation of North Dakota.
In addition, he is the current president of Minneapolis Umpires Association.
Lohnes currently serves as the Chair of the Diversity Foundation Board, where he
helps to oversee the foundation's state wide efforts in diversity education,
awareness and training.
Lee Luebbe was selected for this award for her major contribution toward founding
and organizing Winona County's project FINE (Focus on Integrating Newcomers
Through Education).
The project is geared to help transition new county residents in Southeast
Minnesota, especially those of Hmong and Asian decent.
Luebbe served 12 years on the Winona County Board and eight years on the Winona
City Planning Commission.
In 1991, she established Luebbe Consulting Services. She is also the Associate
Director of Hendrickson's Institute for Ethical Leadership, St Mary's University,
where she is an Adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School, where she
facilitates the global ethics course.
Luebbe has also been instrumental in coordinating with Diversity Foundation's
current historic documentary: "Wapasha's Prairie: A story of a family and
community." The documentary is the pre-European history of Winona, Minnesota.
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Amos Owen, this fall, will be awarded a Bridging the Gap Award posthumously.
Owen, who died in 1990, was instrumental in initiating the reconciliation efforts
begun in Mankato in the 1970s and continues to this day, as a result of the 38
Dakota Warriors hung in Mankato in 1862. His healing and reconciliation efforts,
along with other Native and non-Native visionaries, are the basis for the
Diversity Foundation's Dakota Reconciliation Documentary. Owen's award will be
presented to his wife, Ione, and other family members from the Prairie Island
Reservation later this year, in a ceremony in Mankato.
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For more information on Award and how to nominate or participate:
14 Seventh Avenue North.
St. Cloud, MN. 56302
ph. (320) 259-4022 fax. (320) 259-4074
e-mail. DFStaff@DiversityFoundation.org