This year's recipient of the 2011 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. award—honoring a local resident whose community work exemplifies the equal rights that Dr. King fought for—is Kate Bialo.  She will be honored at the 24^th Annual Program Celebrating the Memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Jan. 12, 2011 at Larchmont Avenue Church, according to a press release from Valerie O'Keeffe, the Town of Mamaroneck (TOM) supervisor.

The event will be held the week prior to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, which is due to fall on Jan. 17, 2011.

Bialo founded the Furniture Sharehouse— a not-for-profit organization that provides furniture to people in need—in 2007 to fill the need for a temporary storage spot for donated furniture. A "shared warehouse" space was located and with start-up funds donated by the Junior League of Westchester on the Sound (JLOWS) and a matching grant from Westchester County Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a space at the Westchester County Airport was secured, according to the Sharehouse website.

Sharehouse's services were critical during the flooding of Mamaroneck in 2007, days before the official inception of the organization, when 65 displaced families received donated furniture.

A posthumous recognition will be made for James McDonald, a local resident and volunteer who was involved in an exhaustive list of community organizations.  He was a board member at the Mamaroneck CAP Center, HOPE Community Services of New Rochelle and the Larchmont Community Church and a volunteer at the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Summit, I-Care and a fundraiser at Mamaroneck High School. His mother was the first recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. award.  McDonald passed away unexpectedly on Sept. 5, 2010.

Mary Stanton, author of Freedom Walk-Mississippi or Bust and From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo, will lead the discussion on the civil rights movement called, "From Selma to Sorrow – 45th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Voting March."

The gathering is being hosted by members of The Tri-Municipal Human Rights Committee of Larchmont and Mamaroneck and the Local Summit.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

For any additional information, please contact Town Supervisor Valerie M. O’Keeffe at 914-381-7805.