Beth Massey could have stopped after she reached out and mentored a drug-addicted prostitute 10 years ago. But after seeing the woman relapse because no one would hire her, Massey kept going and started bag maker Mission Wear in 2006 to employ women down on their luck.
On Friday, Mission Wear was one of seven honored at the 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Business Awards, which brought together Denver’s diverse business community, plus Mayor Michael Hancock, Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Denver mayor Wellington Webb, and his wife, Wilma Webb.
Speakers called for courage and an end to violence.
“Here we are in 2015 and we’re dealing with the kinds of issues that really test our souls,” said Wilma Webb, a former state legislator credited with Colorado observing Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a holiday.
“We all know what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for. He dealt with the issues that faced his lifetime. We must do the same thing with the issues that face us during our lifetime,” she said.
During the keynote, Hickenlooper spoke of the aftermath of the Arapahoe High School shooting. The parents of victim Claire Davis encouraged forgiveness.
“This is exactly what Dr. King preached and wanted to encourage us to guide us, to inspire us to dig down deep in those moments to try to find the very best in ourselves and to look out for the best in others,” Hickenlooper said.
The six honorees plus a lifetime achievement winner were profiled in a video montage and chosen because they “clearly helped Dr. King’s dream come true in Colorado,” said Tamara Banks, the event’s master of ceremonies.
Mission Wear has gone on to help 50 women get a job.
“Giving someone a job is like winning the lottery for some people,” Massey said.
Another honoree, Mi Casa Resource Center, provides training and economic assistance to mostly Latino youth. In 2013, 76 percent of its graduates were placed in full-time jobs, compared to 54 percent at similar programs nationwide.
Stephen Jordan, president of Metropolitan State University of Denver, was honored for making higher education more accessible to undocumented students.
Civil-liberties lawyer Mari Newman, a partner at Killmer, Lane & Newman, took on the Colorado Department of Corrections on who was raped by a prison guard.
The Children’s Outreach Project, which provides care for children with special needs, became the first four-star Qualistar-rated facility in Adams County in 2007.
And the late Penfield W. Tate II, who was Boulder’s first African-American mayor, helped pass a human rights ordinance supporting the LGBT community.
The Trailblazer Award went to Ruth Steele, a civil rights advocate who graduated from a Pueblo high school at age 15. She founded the Dr. Martin Luther King Museum in Pueblo.
Tamara Chuang: 303-954-1209, tchuang@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Gadgetress
