Utica, NY (WIBX) - The Mohawk Valley Frontiers Club is gearing up to host its 28th Annual MLK Day Luncheon in Utica on Monday, January 16, 2012.  The event is to recognize a few outstanding students and community members, and present them with scholarships and awards, on the day our nation honors, Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Group member, U-Nice Elliott, says the Frontiers Club has a long record of achievement, through its programs and service to the community. "Well, our students are amazing. We have, from any student that have enrolled to become a member of our organization--our Jr. Frontiers--we have 100-percent high school graduation rate, we have a 99.9-percent college placement rate. Our college success, those that go on to graduate from college is at 89-percent," Elliott said.

And, she says three students have gone on to earn law degrees, and another is currently working on her PhD. This year, the group will also present Watson Williams Elementary School with a $500 donation, and feature an exhibit of tours area students have taken to historic black colleges in the country. Guest speaker will be former Madison County Judge, The Honorable, Hugh Humphreys, who is also a local scholar of the abolitionist movement in upstate New York. Humphreys also serves as a pro-bono lawyer with the Mid York Legal Society in Utica.

Elliott says the non-profit is run solely by donations and parent fundraising. She says one way the community and area businesses can continue to help the group further its mission is by purchasing tickets to the event. That can be done by contacting, Rich Davis at (315) 335-2328. Advance sale tickets are $35. Group tickets for a 10-person table are also available. Those wishing to take out an ad can do so for $40. The ads will appear in the souvenir journal giving at the event. The deadline to include an ad is January 10. For more information, visit club's site here. Last year's guest speaker was Lt. Governor Robert J. Duffy.

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