ORLANDO
Orlando hotelier Harris Rosen, president and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, received the Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. Award at the 32nd Annual Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner recently presented by The King Center in Atlanta.
The award is given in honor of and in keeping with the spirit of the late Coretta Scott King and recognizes a youth or young adult and a youth organization/initiative which exemplifies exceptional leadership in the areas of peace, social justice and nonviolent social change. The honor was established and awarded for the first time in 2013.
Rosen was recognized for his more than 20-year commitment to the Tangelo Park Program, a three-fold educational community service initiative within the once drug- and crime-ridden Tangelo Park neighborhood of Orlando.
The King Center, formally known as The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, was established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King.
Rosen created the Tangelo Park Program in 1993, a personally funded concept that provides free preschool for every two-, three-, and four-year-old child living in the neighborhood and a full community college or four-year college or a vocational or technical school scholarship for every graduating high school senior. In addition, the program provides a Neighborhood Center for Families where parents can take parenting courses and obtain counseling and other resources to help them become positive role models for their children.
When Rosen created the Tangelo Park Program, the community's high school dropout rate was 43 percent higher than the national average. Not long after the program began, high school graduation rates soared with an almost zero dropout rate. To date, more than 280 young people have now attended college or vocational school on the program.
"I am so honored that the Tangelo Park Program has been recognized by The King Center and I am truly humbled to receive an award given in the spirit of Mrs. Coretta Scott King," said Rosen. "I am happy to accept the honor on behalf of the Tangelo Park community and especially all of the youngsters who have worked so hard over the past 20 years to better themselves through the gift of education."
Rosen Hotels & Resorts comprises nearly 6,500 guest rooms at seven Orlando hotels: three convention properties - Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre and Rosen Shingle Creek, as well as four value-priced leisure properties - Rosen Inn International; Rosen Inn Closest to Universal; Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando; and Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista.
Related Content
Check out Tyler Davidson's recent profile on Harris Rosen that ran in the Jan. 2015 issue.
