Steve Smith to be Awarded William Beckham Community Service Award

Detroit, MI – Steve Smith will be awarded the William Beckham Community Service Award for his outstanding charitable and community work on November 28, 2006.

The award, given by the National Conference for Community and Justice of Michigan, will be presented to Smith at the 59th Annual Humanitarian Tribute in Detroit. Ralph Babb, Chariman and CEO of Comerica, Inc., and Tom Wilson, President and CEO of Palace Sports & Entertainment, will be receiving the NCCJ-MI’s Humanitarian of the Year awards.

Smith’s generosity and commitment to education has benefited many communities and organizations, including Michigan State University and the City of Detroit. His largest gift of $3.1 million was to build the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center on the campus of MSU, which provides student athletes at MSU academic support so they may excel not just in their sport, but in the classroom as well. This gift also endowed the Steve Smith Scholarship Fund, which every year provides one student from Smith’s high school – Detroit’s Pershing High School – with a four-year scholarship to MSU.

Since 1941, the NCCJ-MI has honored those who exemplify the organization’s pledge to building stronger communities free of discrimination and racism. Previous honorees include auto industry leader Lee Iacocca (1970), Rosa Parks (1992), former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer (1998), and the Ford Motor Company (2002).

For more information on the National Conference for Community and Justice of Michigan and the 2006 humanitarian honorees, please visit www.nccj-mi.org.