U.S. senator-elect Benjamin L. Cardin will give the keynote address and community leaders and student essay winners will receive awards at the 26th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at Anne Arundel Community College.

A few tickets still remain for the event, which is set in the David S. Jenkins Gymnasium at 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 15, on the Arnold campus, 101 College Parkway. Tickets are $25 each or $250 for a table for 10. Doors open at 7:30 a.m.

Cardin’s acceptance to keynote the breakfast continues a tradition of having each U.S. senator from Maryland give the address.

Cardin has championed human rights and fiscal responsibility during his 40 years of public service. He served first as a legislator in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he chaired the Ways and Means Committee and then was Speaker of the House. In 1987, Cardin was elected to represent the Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cardin won election to the U.S. Senate in November.

He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh and graduated first in his class in 1967 at the University of Maryland School of Law.

A major part of the event honors community leaders who best exemplify King’s spirit and teachings.

"The 2007 recipients of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. awards are educators, civil rights leaders and a former mayor whose careers have demonstrated a commitment to the ideals of Dr. King," said Carl O. Snowden, chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast Committee. "This year's youth essay winners underscore the fact that Dr. King's concept of a 'beloved community' lives on."

The award recipients are:

-- Walter Blasingame of Arnold receives the Anne Arundel Coalition of Tenants Inc. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for his decades of work in the interest of social justice and civic improvement.

-- Henry L. Branch of Petersburg, Va., wins the AACC Black Student Union’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Zeitgeist Award for his efforts at creating a student success program at MacArthur Middle School, his partnership with AACC and Educational Talent Search to prepare students for college.

-- Ed Lee Johnson of Annapolis, a teacher and administrator at local elementary schools for more than 35 years, receives the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission’s Dallas G. Pace Sr. Humanitarian Award for youth mentorship and civic efforts in helping develop Quiet Waters Park and the new Wiley H. Bates Heritage Park.

-- Former Annapolis Mayor Roger "Pip" Moyer Sr. of Annapolis wins the City of Annapolis Human Relations Commission’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his longtime civil rights activism. While Moyer was mayor, the city passed civil rights legislation, created affordable housing and started successful youth jobs program.

-- The Rev. Dr. Ronald Ward of Severna Park receives the United Black Clergy of Anne Arundel County’s Leon H. White Clergy Memorial Award for his role as pastor of the Asbury Town Neck United Methodist Church in Severna Park. He led his community in collaborations with the Habitat International Building and Rebuilding program and with food and utility assistance programs.

The event also will honor student winners of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest and their teachers. Sponsored by the Annapolis chapter of the Links Inc., a nonprofit community organization for local youth, the contest awards nine essay writers enrolled in county elementary, middle and high schools.

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