McDonald’s presents its 2010 365Black Awards, continuing to recognize prominent African Americans who influence and inspire greatness among African Americans and all Americans.

Celebrities and dignitaries from across the country join event emcee Tom Joyner, nationally syndicated radio personality and one of the first recipients of the 365Black Award, along with Sherri Shepherd, television co-host of “The View,” on Friday, July 2, 2010, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, to recognize the accomplishments of several noteworthy individuals. Each 2010 recipient of the McDonald’s 365Black Awards exemplifies outstanding community service, empowering new generations for years to come.

This year McDonald’s recognizes Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Lieutenant General Russel L. Honore, US Army (Ret); philanthropists Rodney Peete and Holly Robinson Peete; and National Black McDonald’s Operators Association CEO Rita Mack, a New-Jersey-based McDonald’s owner/operator.  These individuals join the ranks of previous 365Black honorees, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, ESSENCE Magazine president Michelle Ebanks and founder Susan Taylor, educator Johnnetta B. Cole, CNN journalist Soledad O’Brien, and NBA legend Alonzo Mourning.

“This year’s McDonald’s 365Black Awards recipients represent another extraordinary group of leaders in America.  From celebrated intellectuals to catalysts in community service, they are accomplished people of tremendous influence,” said Neil Golden, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald’s USA.  ”They continually inspire all of us with their unique leadership in areas that touch our lives.”

The 365Black Awards were launched in 2003 and are an extension of McDonald’s 365Black initiative, created to celebrate the pride, heritage and achievements of African Americans yearlong.  McDonald’s outreach under the 365Black platform includes the web site www.mcdonalds.com/365black, as well as alliances with organizations that provide opportunities for African Americans to succeed.  

“McDonald’s continues to cultivate the growth of the African American community through recognizing those that empower our consumers to take advantage of academic, economic, employment and career opportunities,” said Rob Jackson, Director of U.S. Marketing, McDonald’s USA. “Our commitment is to celebrate people who truly demonstrate the essence of 365Black, which is all about being ‘deeply rooted in the community®’ everyday.”

The 2010 365Black Awards recipients include:

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. , the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Professor Gates is Editor-in-Chief of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine focusing on issues of interest to the African American community and written from an African American perspective, and the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American and Africana Studies. Professor Gates is also the critically acclaimed host of multi-part PBS documentary series, “African American Lives 1 and 2.” and “Faces of America.”

Lt. General Russel L. Honore, who led Task Force Katrina in the aftermath of the devastating hurricanes that struck the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2005. General Honore is currently a Senior Scientist with The Gallup Organization, where he is working on developing questions to determine levels of preparedness, and a CNN Preparedness Contributor. General Honore retired on February 29, 2008, following 37 years of active service with the United States Army.  

Rodney Peete and Holly Robinson Peete formed the HollyRod Foundation, inspired by her father’s inspiring battle with Parkinson’s disease, with the mission to help improve the quality of life of people plagued with devastating life circumstances. In 2005, inspired by their son, hollyrod4kids was formed to focus on children’s causes and improving the lives of children affected by circumstances beyond their control, specifically autism.  Through hollyrod4kids and her family’s personal experiences, The Peetes have become advocates for consistent and reliable education, outreach and support on autism. 

Rita Mack Chairman and CEO of the National Black McDonald’s Operators Association (NBMOA), oversees the nation’s largest and most successful organization for African American franchisees.  Mack, an operator of nine restaurants in New Jersey, is a tireless leader, dedicated to advancing and celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit of the African American community, through ensuring the businesses success of the African American operators who own restaurants throughout the nation.

It’s been nearly 200 years since Louis Braille created a system of raised dot writing for blind people. Many people see the little dots as something of a novelty. But for thousands of blind and visually impaired children who use those dots to connect themselves to the darkened world around them, Braille is their passport to success. This underrated literacy issue is finally coming to the forefront of discussion because of a national academic competition that seeks to draw Braille out of the shadows and into the public consciousness. On Saturday, June 26, the top blind students from across the United States and Canada will be coming to Los Angeles to put their knowledge of the Braille code to the test in the only national academic competition for blind students in the country—The National Braille Challenge. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this groundbreaking event.

Sponsored by Braille Institute of America, the competition serves to encourage blind children of all ages to fine-tune their Braille skills, which are essential to their success in the sighted world. The 10th Annual National Braille Challenge will take place on Saturday, June 26, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Braille Institute’s headquarters, located at 741 North Vermont Avenue, in Los Angeles. The participants, ages 6 to 19, will compete in challenging categories requiring them to transcribe, type and read Braille using a device called a Perkins Brailler. This year’s competition will feature a diverse group of high achievers from across the country. Most were born blind, others lost their sight due to cancer or viral infections, but they all share a tenacity that drives them to succeed in spite of their disability. They were chosen from among more than 800 students during the preliminary round at Regional Braille Challenge events across the country.

“This competition is unique in that it tests a very specific skill. The great thing about The Braille Challenge, is that it gives us the opportunity to celebrate Braille literacy and bring this issue to the attention of the public,” said Nancy Niebrugge, director of The Braille Challenge. “Most of the participants who make it to the national competition are the only blind students in their school. They go through their entire lives being the exception. This competition gives them the opportunity to build camaraderie among kids who have shared similar life experiences.”

Each category of The National Braille Challenge is designed to test Braille skills in several areas—reading comprehension, Braille spelling, chart and graph reading, proofreading and Braille speed and accuracy—all of which blind students need to master in order to keep up with their sighted peers. The first- through third-place winners in each age group will receive a savings bond, ranging in value from $500 for the youngest group to $5,000 for the oldest. In addition to these prizes, Freedom Scientific corporation has donated the latest adaptive equipment for the winners—a pocket PC with a Braille display called a PacMate.

“We cannot afford to let Braille disappear. In 200 years from now, hopefully blind children and adults will still have this form of literacy to connect them to the sighted world,” said Niebrugge.

Relentless in his lifelong devotion to the elephants’ survival, Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Ph.D., has been named the 2010 recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation. In recognition for his lifetime achievements, Dr. Douglas-Hamilton will receive $100,000 and the Lilly Medal at a gala ceremony presented by Cummins Inc. on Sept. 25, 2010, at The Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.

The colorful career of Iain Douglas-Hamilton has included being squashed by a rhino, targeted by poachers, and poked by elephants’ tusks. He has suffered malaria, hepatitis and other diseases so exotic most people have never even heard of them – not to mention the plane crashes he has survived. He has persevered through severe droughts and a flood so powerful it washed away years of research. So why does he endure all this? One reason – to save elephants.

Four decades ago, Douglas-Hamilton pioneered the first in-depth scientific study of elephant social behavior that has set the standard for every study to follow. He led emergency anti-poaching efforts in Uganda to bring the elephant population there from the very brink of extinction. He has testified before Congress on behalf of his beloved elephants multiple times, leading to the African elephant bill, to date the most successful funding program for the species. His pioneering Global Positioning System (GPS) elephant tracking, widely emulated in Africa and Asia, has become a model survey technique. He recently partnered with Google Earth to show elephant movement in real time via satellite images.

In September 2009, Douglas-Hamilton worked to rescue a rare herd of desert elephants in northern Kenya and Mali, threatened from one of the worst droughts in nearly a dozen years. In the spring of 2010, a devastating flood destroyed the Save the Elephants camp in Kenya including staff tents, computers and years of field research notes. With a team of local researchers, the camp is now being rebuilt.

He has patiently, relentlessly countered efforts to kill the African elephant for ivory, while continuing to educate others through his extensive conservation research. Just recently, at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Douglas-Hamilton was successful in campaigning against the Tanzanian and Zambian proposals to downlist the elephants’ status on the endangered list and sell their ivory stockpiles.

“The plight of the African elephant is intensely personal to Iain. He has studied, named and nurtured thousands of African elephants for generations, and it is this intimate understanding of and love for these magnificent mammals that drives Iain’s forceful efforts to secure a future for endangered African elephants,” said Michael Crowther, President/CEO, Indianapolis Zoo. “Iain truly epitomizes what it means to be a hero.”

“Iain is a one-of-a-kind encyclopedia on elephants. His breadth of knowledge, derived from personal experience, observation, and interactions with managers, politicians, and land owners, is a critical and unique asset to conservation,” said George Wittemyer, assistant professor in Colorado State University’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, a protégé who has worked with Douglas-Hamilton since 1997. “His legacy to the conservation community, general public and the African elephant includes alerting the world to the risks of its overexploitation, original and continued research on the behavior and ecology of the species, identification of critical populations/regions facing extreme threats, creation and implementation of novel solutions to the multitude of emerging conservation issues, and educating the public about the wonders and intelligence of the African elephant, its habitats, and the people with which it coexists.”

Born in Dorset, England, Douglas-Hamilton attended Gordonstoun School in Scotland and received his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. He currently works and resides in Nairobi, Kenya.

The 2008 Indianapolis Prize was awarded to legendary field biologist George Schaller, Ph.D. Schaller’s accomplishments span decades and continents, bringing fresh focus to the plight of several endangered species – from tigers in India to gorillas in Rwanda – and inspiring others to join the crusade.

A congenital heart defect survivor is pedaling his bike across America, beginning June 8, 2010, to raise awareness about congenital heart defects and raise $100,000 in research dollars for the Children’s Heart Foundation (CHF).

“BIKE 4 CHF”—the journey of Nels Matson, 27, of Bradenton, Fla.—is a fundraiser of the Children’s Heart Foundation, a national non-profit focused on “Saving Children’s Lives – One Heart at a Time.” CHF funds the most promising research to learn more about congenital heart defects (CHDs), the number-one birth defect in America, which affects 40,000 births every year and one in every 100 newborns.

Matson will ride his road bike 3,709 miles, from California to New York, in 43 days. Along the route, Matson will meet up with and ride alongside CHF supporters of all ages in 15 states and encourage them to donate through his Web site, www.athletes4heart.com.

The Children’s Heart Foundation has named Matson its first ever “KID 4 CHF,” in honor of Matson’s BIKE 4 CHF ride. As Matson crosses the country, he will invite other KIDS 4 CHF to sign his road bike, so they can “ride with him” along the way. KIDS 4 CHF are children who have been diagnosed with a CHD, or who were diagnosed with a CHD at birth and have passed away, who inspire other kids and families facing a diagnosis.

When Matson was three years old, doctors were concerned with the sound of his heart. He was diagnosed with an uncommon congenital heart defect and underwent surgery. He received a clean bill of health at age five and today is remarkably active. Matson wrestled for Iowa State University, and in 2009 began raising funds for the Children’s Heart Foundation through endurance races.

In BIKE 4 CHF, Matson will stop in cities across America for meet ups and quarter-mile ride-a-longs with CHF supporters, and to dedicate segments of his journey to local KIDS 4 CHF.

• Santa Monica, Calif.: June 8
• Las Vegas, Nev.: June 11
• Denver, Colo.: June 22
• Omaha, Neb.: June 30
• Davenport, Iowa: July 4
• Chicago, Ill.: July 7
• South Bend, Ind.: July 8
• Columbus, Ohio: July 13
• Pittsburgh, Pa.: July 15
• Philadelphia, Pa.: July 19
• New York, N.Y.: July 20

Houston will sizzle when some of the country’s top culinary teen talent descends upon the city known for its Texas-size steaks.  On May 15, nearly 40 high school seniors from across the U.S. and Canada will compete for the coveted title of The Art Institutes Best Teen Chef 2010.  At the end of a grueling competition, only one teen chef will relish in the moment when he or she is named this year’s Best Teen Chef.

Definitely not a piece of cake, the annual competition, sponsored by The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes, is judged by a cadre of seasoned culinary experts; among them one certified master chef.  The judging categories range from knife skills, safety and sanitation, and cooking techniques all the way to taste, flavor, texture and doneness of the meals prepared.  

What’s at stake is a full-tuition scholarship toward a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree, certificate program or diploma program to study Culinary Arts at one of the more than 35 participating Art Institutes locations.  In addition to a full-tuition scholarship and the title of Best Teen Chef 2010, the national first place winner will be an “Intern for a Day” at Food Network Kitchens in New York City.  The winner will also receive a tour of Food Network’s studios, dinner for two at a Food Network chef’s restaurant and a library of Food Network Kitchens cookbooks.

“It is our pleasure to continue to foster today’s teen cooking talent.  Many of these students started mixing it up in the kitchen when they were barely old enough to hold a measuring cup.  We know that with the proper training many of them will go on to highly successful and fulfilling careers in the culinary arts,” said Chef Michael Nenes, Assistant Vice President of Culinary Arts for The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes.