Idaho human rights group honors six
Six current and former Coeur d’Alene elected officials were honored Monday night for supporting a change in city law making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation.
The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations gave its Civil Rights Award to former Mayor Sandi Bloem, former City Council members Mike Kennedy and Deanne Goodlander, and current Councilmen Woody McEvers, Ron Edinger and Dan Gookin. Bloem helped bring the matter before the council last year, and those five council members voted for the change on June 4.
The task force also gave Ellen Stamsos its Bill Wassmuth Memorial Volunteer of the Year Award at the group’s annual Human Rights Banquet. Stamsos is the treasurer of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.
North Idaho College students Sherry Mays, Kekuuiani Haake, Bwalya Musonda and Alexander Robies were recognized for receiving the Gov. Phil Batt and Sen. Mary Lou Reed NIC Student Minority Scholarships, funded by the Human Rights Education Institute and the NIC Foundation.
The keynote speaker was Bruce Reed, a Coeur d’Alene native and former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. Reed now serves as president of the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which supports opportunities for students in urban schools.
Reed’s parents, community activists Mary Lou and Scott Reed, were inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame at Monday’s banquet, along with the Human Rights Education Institute, which works to celebrate diversity and promote human rights in the area, and Southern Idaho philanthropist Greg Carr, a major donor to the institute.
Past hall of fame inductees include Sacajawea, Nez Perce Tribe leader Chief Joseph, grocery chain founder Joe Albertson, Coeur d’Alene writer and historian Louise Shadduck, World War II fighter ace Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, hospitality magnate Duane Hagadone and Hollywood femme fatale Lana Turner, born in Wallace in 1921.
The banquet at the Coeur d’Alene Inn was attended by about 475 guests.