Present Pillars in Benton Harbor has honored several men who have helped make the community a better place in the past year with its third annual Pillar Awards Gala, held on Saturday.
Present Pillars Director James Gunter tells us the organization gave out a variety of awards, including Pillar of the Year, which went to Carl Stigall. Gunter says Stigall has volunteered throughout the community.
“Every time anyone has a need, here pops up Carl,” Gunter said. “He’s always there, whether it be financially, anything you need, he’s always excited to help.”
Legendary Pillar Awards went to Gerald Gunter, Sr, Donnel Kyles, and Kenneth Jackson, while the Volunteer of the Year is attorney Blair Johnson.
“He’s participated and been a huge part of our success with helping people with expungement here in this community. He also does a series with us that we livestream called Due Process for that. And so far, we’ve talked about expungement. We talked about driver’s license restoration. We talked about estate planning.”
Gunter says the Entrepreneur of the Year is Diandre Hureskin of Reasonz 2 Share Digital Media, the Mentor of the Year is Nick Blue, and the Sports Dad Award went to Curtis McFall.
Gunter says it was an amazing feeling to have so many positive community servants in one room as Present Pillars capped off another successful year. The event also included an auction that helped raise funds for the group.
