Ebony Romano, 2006 King County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award recipient

I am humbled today to be here and receive this award. I am humbled because this award represents the life teaching of a man who walked his talk; one of my heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I am, also, humbled because I have been recognized for the things that I do as a normal part of my life.

When I learned that I was selected for this award, I thought about why I volunteer as much as I do? Why I have a burning desire to help others? I realized that my efforts to help others is born from the personal injustices that I have seen with my own eyes and felt deep within my heart.

I remember when my father and I were at a grocery store in Chicago and my father asked one of the store clerks where the location of a certain food item was. The clerk responded to him very rudely; raising her voice, and speaking extremely slow, as if my father was deaf, as if he would not understand what she was saying unless she spoke in that manner.

This had to be a humiliating experience for my father, I'm sure. I was too young, at the time, to realize my own emotions. You see my, father is originally from the Philippines and immigrated to the States in the 1972, he has dark skin, and speaks with a heavy accent. I was born here in the states and use English as my primary language, even though I speak both of my parents' native tongue; Spanish and Tagalog, I do not have the heavy accent that my father does.

This memory, among many others, created a hole in my heart that filled with sadness and a sense of frustration that I did not understand at the time but that later became clearer to me. I know now that the sadness and the frustration over time sparked a passion and strong desire in me to help others, especially those whom are disenfranchised or underprivileged or can be easy targets for discriminatory treatment.

Over the years, I've observed so much discrimination towards my father. I've also experienced some myself largely brought on by the color of my skin. I've been told to go back to my country. Well, guess what? This is my country. But my experience of discrimination or humiliation has not been as important to me as someone one close to me experiencing it. The sadness and sense of frustration I feel for them has moved me to treat every human being with dignity.

What I've learned from all the community service that I have done is that one of the most important issues to someone whether they are homeless, addicted, elderly, physically challenged, culturally diverse, or disenfranchised, is that they still have their HUMAN dignity. And unfortunately there are many members of this society that do not treat them that way.

And so in my social service and restorative justice journey, I've always been compelled to restore "human dignity" to those who may have felt as if they've lost it. And that is why I serve meals to the disadvantaged homeless men and program participants at the UGM or teach beginning WWW class to elderly and immigrants at the KCLS or build homes with Habitat for Humanity for those who are low income. In a lot of ways, the smiles on the faces of those to whom I lend a hand goes a long way toward filling that hole in my heart brought on by that sadness and frustration experienced as a young child.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his book, Strength to Love … "The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life."

I challenge everyone here to take what touches you personally and take it to another level. Let it propel you to volunteer or fill a need. Let's join in with the Executive's efforts to end homelessness. Commit to doing something for someone else, even at work. It's as simple as finding the right phone number for someone who's called you and has the wrong number.

Every thing that we do that brings or restores dignity to others reflects in their eyes our own dignity.

Thanks to those who nominated me for this award and to those that selected me to receive it and thank you all for honoring me. It is this kind of recognition that tells me, that I am doing the right thing and that I am on the right path.