Longtime activists and leaders Clare Armistead, Janet Ayers, Inez Crutchfield, Annette Eskind, Carrie Gentry, Rosetta Miller-Perry, and Colleen Conway-Welch praised at 26th Annual Kraft Award Luncheon.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee honored seven trailblazing Women of Wonder at the 26th annual Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award luncheon Thursday, October 17 at the Music City Center’s Davidson Ballroom, the honorees resplendent in “Women of Wonder” sashes and fresh floral corsages.

You couldn’t miss them, nor be less than awed by their lifelong accomplishments.

Each year this award honors a person or persons who, like the late Joe Kraft, demonstrates a commitment to community, home and hearth, and individuals in need.

This year’s honorees are: Clare Armistead, style icon, philanthropist and fundraiser; Janet Ayers, philanthropist and education patron; the late Colleen Conway-Welch, longtime VU School of Nursing Dean; Inez Crutchfield, Tennessee State University educator, political insider and Civil Rights activist; Annette Eskind, champion of adoption, and education and social reformer; Carrie Gentry, TSU educator and Civil Rights activist; and Rosetta Miller-Perry, founder of The Tennessee Tribune and Civil Rights activist.

“As you hear about their work,” said 2017 Kraft Award honoree Jerry Williams from the podium, “just focus on the fact that their work has spanned 50 years … years without TVs or laptops, years without email — much less texting — without air-conditioning … years when they needed dimes and quarter to even make a phone call. …”

Continued Williams, “You think it’s hard to get things done these days — just imagine …”

Honorary event chair Martha Ingram, the 2016 Kraft recipient, continued the sentiment: “Not one of these women is a cookie cutter … not one of them followed the crowd … Each of them has uniquely followed her heart,” Ingram told the crowd.

After lunch, Mayor John Cooper addressed the audience. “The women we honor today, individually and collectively, have enhanced and improved our community in so many different ways,” Cooper said. “And this community is extraordinarily fortunate.

“One of the best gifts these Women of Wonder have given us is the opportunities they’ve taken or created to encourage others to believe in themselves and their work to make things happen,” the newly elected Nashville mayor continued.

After a 17-minute video tribute to the seven honorees, Janet Ayers, in representing the honorees, helped close the program.

“All of us are deeply honored to continue to work to complete our goals and our dreams, as we follow the footprints of Joe Kraft,” Ayers said from the podium. “We hope each and every one of you will join us in continuing to make our community better and stronger.”

The Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award Fund continues the memory of Joe Kraft, who made Middle Tennessee a better place to live through his dedication to community, home and hearth, and individuals in need. The committee who chooses the recipient is particularly interested in nominations of community leaders who, like Joe, sometimes function behind the scenes. The person(s) named as the recipient of this annual award receives the opportunity to recommend that grants from this Fund be distributed to charities in which he or she believes.

Established in 1993, the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award recognizes community leaders who embody the strength of character and unwavering integrity of the late Joe Kraft. Past honorees are:

2018 — Charles Strobel
2017 — Jerry B. Williams
2016 — Jack B. Turner
2015 — Jim Haslam II
2014 — Mayor Karl Dean
2013 — Francis Guess
2012 — John Seigenthaler
2011 — Amy Grant and Vince Gill
2010 — Governor Winfield Dunn
2009 — R. Clayton McWhorter
2008 — Cal Turner Jr. and Steve Turner
2007 — Nelson Andrews
2006 — Martha Ingram
2005 — Joel Gordon
2004 — Governor Ned Ray McWhorter
2003 — Jim Ayers
2002 — Jamye and McDonald Williams
2001 — The Founders of The Community Foundation
2000 — Irwin Eskind and Noah Liff
1999 — Monroe J. Carell Jr.
1998 — Pauline Gore
1997 — Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley
1996 — Mayor Phillip Bredesen and Andrea Conte
1995 — Aubrey B. Harwell Jr.
1994 — Elizabeth Jacobs and Mary Jane Werthan

About The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee

The Community Foundation exists to promote and facilitate giving in the 40 counties of Middle Tennessee and beyond. It does this by accepting gifts of any size from anyone at any time and by empowering individuals, families, companies, nonprofits and communities to respond to needs and opportunities that matter. The Community Foundation works with people who have great hearts, whether or not they have great wealth, to craft solutions that reflect their intentions and goals. For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.