ORLANDO, Fla. – The 32nd annual Arthur “Pappy” Kennedy Prayer Breakfast on Monday started on a high note.
For the first time in two years, community and faith leaders gathered in person for the celebration of Orlando’s first Black elected official.
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“It’s so amazing to be back in person. We did it virtually the last couple of years,” Arthur Kennedy said.
Kennedy traveled from South Florida to be here for his late grandfather’s ceremony which is held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“I can remember coming here every summer and spending summers with my grandfather and every morning he would wake up and walk in the neighborhood and pick up trash, things of that nature, and I used to always wonder like why he’s doing this? But now that I’m older, it comes back to fruition, like, ‘Hey, this is what serving is all about,’” Kennedy said.
It was in 1973 that Pappy was elected to the Orlando City Council, he received support from voters from all over the city and his legacy has inspired many throughout the last five decades.
“I grew up here and so I had a personal relationship with commissioner Arthur Pappy Kennedy and so I had the opportunity to listen to his tutelage over the years and I was a City of Orlando police officer, and I had the opportunity to work my way up through the ranks because of people like Pappy Kennedy,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said.
Dr. Barbara Jenkins, former Orange County superintendent, was this year’s keynote speaker.
Dr. Clara L. Walters was awarded the 2023 Arthur “Pappy” Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award following her decades of service to education in Orange County.
Walters is the first African American female secondary school principal and first permanent female high school principal in Orange County Public Schools’ history.
During the ceremony, eight students were given scholarships from different organizations.
“If that’s what’s in your heart, to see people and make this world a better place, it’s all for the glory,” Kennedy said.
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