EVANSTON, IL — The 27th annual African-American Youth Achievement Awards were held this month at Evanston Township High School.
Part of a Black History Month initiative, the event honors a pair of Black students — one boy and one girl — in each grade of high school and in each school in Evanston/Skokie School District 65.
The 41 award-winning students (see full list below) were recognized at a Feb. 8 ceremony at the local public high school. Student winners were selected by District 65 and Evanston Township High School administrators, according to event co-chair Denise Martin, a retired ETHS assistant superintendent.
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Martin said each winner received family memberships to the YMCA, gift cards from C&W Market and Ice Cream Parlor and Barnes & Noble, teacher narratives, a bookmark featuring Vice President Kamala Harris and one-of-a-kind kente cloth.
The event also honored C&W owners Clarence and Wendy Weaver with the Living Legend-Trailblazer Award, which honors Black Evanstonians for their leadership and community contributions.
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Active in the local business and faith community, the Weavers have been married for 38 years and business partners together for a decade.
“I want to say to the brothers that sometimes get challenged with a woman that’s driven, sometimes you find yourself in places that you needed to be if you allow the woman to take the wheel,” Clarence Weaver said.
Weaver said he grew up in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood and his wife is from Mississippi.
“So I don’t want anybody to get it twisted and just think that you’re seeing high achievers and that’s how life has always been,” he said. “We definitely were raised in very good, very solid homes. To the young people out here: we did listen to our parents, even when sometimes it may have been difficult.”
Full list of 2024 AAYA recipients:
District 65
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ETHS
Watch full Feb. 8 ceremony »
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