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Library Foundation To Present Award To Entrepreneur
Mayor Extends Invitation To Company: ‘Come To Tampa’
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Monday, April 11th, members of the Robert W. Saunders Library Founda- tion, Inc., will honor a Tampa entrepreneur. The Award presentation will be held at the Robert W. Saunders Li- brary Foundation, Inc., 1505 N. Nebraska Avenue, at 5 p.m.
The “Lamp Of Knowl- edge” Award will be pre- sented to Ms. Beverly Steele, founder and CEO of The Steele Organization, LLC.
Ms. Steele created the organization in 1988 as a marketing and management consulting firm that markets the needs of children. Since
MS. BEVERLY STEELE ... Award Recipient
its inception, the organiza- tion has handled accounts in several cities including New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
Ms. Steele is also the founder of the Young per-
forming Artists (YPA), Inc., a non-profit organization that recognizes and focuses on addressing the specialized needs of young performing and visual artists as well as provide creative solutions to youth development. The or- ganization has been in exis- tence for the past 17 years.
YPA has identified more than 500 young Florida artists, has awarded more than $39,000 in scholar- ships, and has provide more than $375,000 of culture, history, and art services, ear- marked for children, youth, and their parents.
The recipient of numer- ous awards and commenda- tions, Ms. Steele earned her B. S. Degree with a Minor in Business Administration from Florida A & M Univer- sity. Ms. Steele and her husband, Cliff Hughes, live in of Royal, Florida.
The Robert W. Saunders Library Foundation, Inc., presents the “Lamp Of Knowledge” Award to a deserving African American each month.
The event is free and open to the public.
Backlash against North Carolina's new non-discrimi- nation law is growing and Tampa Mayor Bob Buck- horn is using that to his ad- vantage.
A day after PayPal an- nounced it would be with- drawing plans of a new operation center in Charlotte, the mayor tweets, "Tampa is, and always will be, proud of our diverse community. We invite PayPal to open their global ops here."
PayPal's plans would have brought 400 jobs and $3.6 million investment to Char- lotte, North Carolina, but the company backed down in lieu of the passing of House Bill 2. Its a non-discrimination law that leaves out protections for the LGBT community and re- quires transgender people to use public bathrooms as- signed to their biological sex, rather than the sex they iden- tify with.
According to PayPal Pres- ident and CEO Dan Schul- man, "The legislation invalidates protections of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisex-
MAYOR BOB BUCKHORN
ual, and transgender citizens and deny these members of our community equal rights under the law."
The news comes days after Braeburn Pharmaceuti- cals announced it was reeval- uating plans for a $25 million expansion in Durham and Google Ventures announcing it would no longer invest money in the state.
"I am deeply concerned that we may see more of the kinds of announcement that we saw this morning," Char- lotte Mayor Jennifer Roberta said.
Earlier this week the NBA released a statement saying they're not sure if North Car- olina is the best place to host the 2017 All-Star game. That statement was followed by a number of other major com- panies expressing similar concerns about HB2. Google, Facebook, American Airlines, IBM, Apple are all speaking out against the new legisla- tion.
PAGE 10-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016