by De’Shon Jenkins

FRANKLIN
Two more speakers will join the Kids of the Year Celebration this Saturday, Aug. 18, in Main Event: Pastor Anthony Rawlings Sr. and Madison Wood.

Rawlings is the lead pastor of Celebration Church in Franklin, and founder of PAR Ministries. He founded and serves as the CEO of Creek Development Corporation where he provided vision to open “The King’s Kitchen,” a soup kitchen in Rich Square, North Carolina, serving approximately 170 hot meals per week and over 15,000 total meals since May 2016.

The Chowan University graduate was unanimously voted to be on their trustee board in November 2011. Rawlings became the second black as well its youngest trustee in the school’s history. He chairs the Northampton County Ministers Council for Education, as well as serves in the office of president of the Northeast North Carolina Minister’s Alliance.

Rawlings sits on the “Smart Beginnings” executive board of Western Tidewater, serving as board chair, the school improvement committee for S.P. Morton Elementary and several other boards.

Rawlings is married to Elder Eureka Rawlings, and they have six children, Anthony Jr., Amber, Andrew, Ashley, Alicia and Aaron.

Madison Woods, also known as “Mady,” is a rising senior at Southampton High School. She is receiving an athletic and academic scholarship to play collegiate softball on the Division I level at Towson University, located in Towson, Maryland, and has been committed there since the summer before her junior year at SHS.

Wood is a recent First Team All-Conference, Conference Player of the Year, First All-Region, and First Team All-State softball player who finished her junior year with a 4.5 GPA. She is also a member of the 18U National Virginia Legends Premier Softball Team, who finished 25th in the nation at the PGF National Softball Tournament in Huntington Beach, California. Madyson is a member at First Baptist Church of Franklin.

She is the daughter of Steph Wood of Southampton County, and Troy Wood of Pendleton, North Carolina.

Tickets are $25 and include dinner and dessert. Obici Healthcare Foundation is the title sponsor of the celebration. The event will be catered by Fred’s Restaurant.

At the event, three Kids of the Year will be selected; one from elementary school, one from middle school and one from high school. Each of the winners will be awarded a $250 back-to-school scholarship for the 2018-19 school year. Throughout the evening, door prizes and other gifts will be given out, all in an effort to recognize and award awesome children in the community. A silent auction will also take place.

Sponsors include 2Give Management, Down the Middle Foundation, Peanut Patch, TaylorMade Fitness, Sport Cutz, Bobby’s Muffler and Tire, Ria B Photography, and Hilton Garden Inn of Suffolk. Silent auction items and sponsors are being added daily. Submission for consideration of a scholarship is closed as winners have been decided.

Sponsorship for the event is still available. Dinner Sponsor is available for $3,000, Entertainment Sponsor – $500, Scholarship Sponsor –  $1,000, or sponsor a family to attend and celebrate their nominee, $250 each. Organizations and businesses may still buy a table for eight for $200.

All proceeds from the event will go toward the Mobile Mentors Program.

To become a sponsor of the Kids of the Year Annual Fundraiser, or purchase a ticket to the event, visit www.youthgroup.com or call C.C. Cooper at 653-6239.

DE’SHON JENKINS is with 2GiveManagement LLC. He can be reached at 652-5641 or djenkins@2givemanagement.com.