Jane Batten to receive Old Dominion's Owens-King award

NORFOLK

Jane Batten will receive Old Dominion University's Hugo Owens Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award during the school's observance on Tuesday.

Batten is the first non-African American to win the award, a university news release said. She is being recognized for her record of community involvement and service on behalf of the disadvantaged. She is the widow of Frank Batten, former chairman of Landmark Communications, which is now known as Landmark Media Enterprises LLC and publishes The Virginian-Pilot.

"She and her family have played a key role in championing the rights of minorities in this community and beyond," said ODU President John Broderick in the news release.

Batten is a member and former chair of the Virginia Wesleyan College Board of Trustees, vice chair of the board of Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads and a member of the board of the Alison J. and Ella W. Parsons Foundations which provide grants to area colleges, universities, arts groups and organizations that work with the homeless, hungry and people in need.

Recently, Batten pledged as much as $1.5 million to aid Saint Paul's College in Brunswick College, a financially troubled, historically black private school. The gift includes a challenge grant through the Batten Educational Achievement Fund and a $1 million endowment to support a program geared toward assisting single parents pursuing college degrees. Both funds are part of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

The Owens-King award recognizes community members whose lives mirror the principles of equality and humanity, the ODU news release said. Hugo Owens, the award's other namesake, was a former rector of the ODU Board of Visitors and a longtime champion of civil rights in Hampton Roads.

Batten will receive the award Tuesday during the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance, which honors King for his civil rights work. Geoffrey Canada, the president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, will be the keynote speaker.

Canada has been nationally recognized for his work helping children and families in Harlem and as an advocate for education reform in his more than 20 years working with the Harlem Children’s Zone, a news release from ODU said. The nonprofit organization is for poverty -stricken children and families in Harlem. It provides free support for the children and families through parenting workshops, a preschool program, three public charter schools and child-oriented health programs.

The 28th annual observance will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the North Cafeteria of the Webb Center on campus. The event is free, but RSVPs are encouraged. To RSVP visit http://www.odu.edu/ao/univevents/forms/rsvp.shtml and use the entry code “MLK12.”