Three who unify county receive Star Spirit of Freedom Award
Skip Foster, Star Editor

There were terrific nominations for this year's Star Spirit of Freedom award. But in the end, it came down to what many people believe our community needs most: unity.

We all know the areas in which our county suffers from divisiveness. So we looked for some place where divisiveness has been overcome and where cooperation and collaboration prevailed.

We came up with three people who were able to do just that.

Now, that's certainly not to say this is a comprehensive list of unifiers and unified action. Some others that come to mind: The merging of the Chamber and the EDC; the continued success of the Chamber's Kings Mountain office; increasing cooperation between the Salvation Army and Kings Mountain Crisis Ministry, a countywide United Way effort and more.

Everybody knows that 1 plus 1 equals 3 or 4 or 100. That is, working together always produces better results than fighting and resisting.

That's why The Star chose these three people as this year's Spirit of Freedom award winners. Maybe some of their unifying will rub off.

The Star Spirit of Freedom Award honors Cleveland County people whose accomplishments best exemplify The Star's ideals - free enterprise, volunteerism, personal responsibility, integrity, community and lifelong learning. A total of $1,000 will be given to this year's winners to be donated to the charity of their choice.

Previous Winners
1998: Robin Hendrick, champion of the YMCA's $7 million building campaign
1999: Rhonda Cooper, backbone of HOPE of North Shelby, helping kids with disabilities
2000: George Hatch, who tutors adults to read and teaches others how to tutor
2001: Jessica Putnam, only 15 when she gave her $14,700 savings to area students and teachers
2002: Jim Horn and Eddie Holbrook, for their work promoting American Legion Baseball

2003 Winners
John Young
Frank Campbell
Larry Corry