Community Corner

Baseball Legend Hank Aaron Honored in Reston

Dream Maker Awards Gala gives scholarships to area students.

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron was in Reston on Thursday, where he was honored at the Martin Luther King Cultural Foundation's Annual Dream Maker Gala at the

Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth's home run record in 1974 and retired from his 23-year Major League Baseball career with 755 home runs, is currently an Atlanta businessman, senior vice president of the Atlanta Braves, and co-founder of the Henry L. Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation.

"I tell kids there are no shortcuts in life," he said. "You need to take things one step at a time to fulfill the promise."

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Both Aaron and the other gala honoree, education activist Sylvia Mendez, are Presidential Medal of Freedom winners.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Foundation, 2011 winners of a Best of Reston award, was founded in 1999 and has given out more than $175,000 in scholarships to 100 students.

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Fourteen area students each accepted $2,000 grants at the gala: Nabill Abdousalam (Virginia Commonwealth), Linden Judith Abston (George Mason), Camiel Dizon (New York University), Ngoc Duong (Penn), Briana Ford (Bowie State), Shane Grannum (Brown), Jasmyne Grismore (Williams) ,Reginald Hayes (Old Dominion), Wanda Hernandez (Virginia Commonwealth), Tionge Johnson (Mary Washington), Deborah Kamara (James Madison), Kathern Luna Yon (Northern Virgina Community College), Jennifer Oppong (Virginia), and Justin Williams.


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