by Josh Carpenter

The Mooresville Community Alliance will recognize 15 students for community and classroom excellence at its Monday, Jan. 16, Day of Unity Breakfast.

The breakfast, held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, takes place at Mooresville Intermediate School, 1438 Coddle Creek Hwy.

“Last year, we started recognizing school students who exemplified integrity, community service and academic achievement,” said Eduardo Haynes, board chairman of the community alliance. “The students that are going to be honored, we’re going to call them Pillars of Hope.”

Three students were chosen from five schools, East Mooresville Intermediate, Mooresville Intermediate, Mooresville Middle, Mooresville High and N.F. Woods Advanced Technology & Arts Center.

Teachers and principals nominated the students. Excerpts from those nominations will be shared at the breakfast, Haynes said.

The alliance has recruited students to sing and serve as greeters for the breakfast, which will be sponsored by McDonalds, Chick-fil-A and Ted’s Famous Chicken.

Michelle Horton will serve as the breakfast’s keynote speaker. Horton, a professor at Johnson C. Smith University, started the YOUniversity Drive program, which caters to first-generation college students.

“She’s a first-generation student,” Haynes said. “So she’s going to talk about going to school and how the sky is the limit.”

The alliance served free breakfast to nearly 200 people last year, setting the table for even greater things in 2012, Haynes said.

The alliance could have recognized adults in and around Mooresville who exemplify excellence. There are plenty of them, he said, but the kids hold the key to the future.

“We figure more people are apt to support something if it’s about the students and the future leaders of the community,” Haynes said. “If we can teach these younger students to strive to do this and make the dream live, that’s who we need to focus on.”