The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Brotherhood Award Committee has honored many heroes during the past 25 years.
So it was time Thursday to give a special award to an Unsung Heroes — someone who works quietly and patiently behind the scenes but means so much to the community in the long run.
The award was bestowed in a ceremony at the Joseph A. Doyle Senior Center to Elder Samuel Levey, Pastor of Williams Memorial Church and one of the chaplains at Griffin Hospital in Derby.
“No matter what church you’re from, you call me, I can go ahead and respond,” said Elder Levey, who is 70 and received his baptism and gift of the Holy Ghost in 1974.
In his working life, he had worked at jobs including being an auxiliary police officer. But he is known for his religious calling.
“It’s God that’s in my life, that makes me draw myself to people, to love people,” Levey said, explaining that is what he learned from Dr. King as well.
Dr. King, the nation’s greatest Civil Rights leader, was assassinated in 1968.
“Dr. King to me was really a mentor, to how you carry yourself,” Levey said. “He was for people, he loved people.”
Levey accepted his award before an audience that include Mayor Jim Della Volpe, who is a member of the committee, State Rep. Linda Gentile and State Sen. Joe Crisco. Crisco presented a citation from the state legislature for the honoree.
“He touches so many lives,” said Ralphine Siggars Ford, chairperson of the committee. “He is there for so many people, in their sickness, for a death in the family, whatever.”
The 2010 Chairman’s Award was given to John Erlingheuser, an Ansonia native and lifelong resident who coordinates the American Association of Retired Person’s advocacy work.
He is also an Ansonia Registrar of Voters.
“I’m proud of the honor, it’s an important honor to me,” Erlingheuser said in a brief interview before the guests ate a buffet dinner. “Dr. King’s philosophy influenced me in public life. My favorite quotation is you judge people not by the color of their skin, but by their character.”
Erlingheuser has worked in the public life all his adult life, having worked for the Connecticut General Assembly, the Senate Democratic caucus and for former U.S. Rep. James Maloney. He could have chosen more lucrative advocacy jobs.
“I made a decision I didn’t want to go and make a bundle of money advocating for things I didn’t believe in. That’s where the passion for my work comes from,” he said of his job with AARP.
The awards were engraved brass set on a wooden plaque. Della Volpe and Gentile praised the awards for what they mean to the community.
Crisco pointed out that brotherhood is sorely needed at this time.
“If ever there was a time for brotherhood this is the time, because we face so many challenges for the future,” Crisco told the audience.
It is a future Levey will be work to make a better one. The pastor accepted his award cheerfully and said he will keep doing the work that has won him this honor.
“God has been good. As long as I live, have life in my body, I will serve the community,” he said.
