Conrad receives 2020 Vulcan Hero award
Madison Conrad, director of Shelby County nonprofit organization Urban Avenues, was recently presented with the 2020 Vulcan Hero Award.
She was the backbone behind Urban Avenues’ CareHealth initiative, which provided meals from local restaurants to health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This program recognizes those who exemplify civic pride, leadership and progress just as Vulcan has symbolized for 116 years. Five outstanding citizens were recognized with “The Vulcan” award for community commitment, initiatives or heroism that have or will have a significant impact on the quality of life in the region.
The criteria to be met to win the award is that the honoree should exhibit Vulcan-like attributes such as optimism, innovation, endurance, forerunner, persistence, proud yet humble, strength, selflessness, survivor, team player and visionary.
Conrad is someone who exemplifies all of those qualities. Although she led the charge for CareHealth, she says this was much more of a group effort. She said about 25 to 30 volunteers “popped up overnight.”
“This was 100 percent unexpected,” Conrad said. “[There were a lot of] people who all came together to make CareHealth happen. There were so many volunteers who were friends or longtime supporters of Urban Avenues. It was fun to be able to get one of the awards that has my name but doesn’t feel like it’s just for me. I put up a website and came up with a logo and made sure we had teams moving, but this is a collective win.”
Once the plan was decided, things moved quickly. Conrad said she immediately got on the phone talking to both restaurants owners and hospitals to figure out a plan.
“We really tried to work with restaurants on what makes sense on how we pay them, how we would place orders and deliver the food,” she said. “On the health care side, we had to figure out the point person, where to deliver the food and how to organize deliveries. All of that probably happened in about two days. We got the website up and running. People saw what we were doing and donated. It was incredible.”
Within 48 hours, Conrad said they had received $2,300 in donations. After a week, that number jumped to $14,000. CareHealth fed teams at hospitals including UAB, St. Vincent’s, Grandview Medical Center, Princeton and St. Vincent’s East, along with at least a dozen long-term care facilities.
Restaurants that served meals included SAW’s Soul Kitchen in Avondale, Eugene’s Hot Chicken, Hero Donuts and other entities of the Phakis Restaurant Group including Rodney Scott’s BBQ. Conrad said Great Harvest Bread in Trussville was also super kind and helpful.
The initiative ran from the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak for about three-and-a-half months. At the end of June, as restaurants were able to have in-person dining and hospital rates decreased, things were paused, but the website continued to be active in case requests came in. CareHealth picked back up in December for the holiday season.
The final numbers for the CareHealth project was over $80,000 raised and 8,000 meals served.
Kearns said it was incredibly rewarding work and she enjoyed feedback received from the health care teams they served and restaurants they partnered with.
“Hearing the experiences from them was really fulfilling,” she said. “That was an energy source for me and I think for all of us. Putting in long hours and hard work and hearing how much the work mattered was a big factor.”
Since 2014, The Vulcans Community Awards have recognized citizens throughout the seven-county Birmingham region who personified Vulcan-sized civic commitment focusing on civic good and transcended selfish desires. In that time, the awards have celebrated over 75 ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things.
In addition to Conrad, the other 2020 honorees for The Vulcans were:
► Lifetime Achievement: Dr. Perry Ward of Lawson State Community College
► Game Changer: Amanda Storey of Jones Valley Teaching Farms
► Servant Leadership: T. Marie King Spears
► Heroes: Milton King of Determined 2 Be Mentor and Leadership Program (D2B); Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Moreman
► Game Changers: Keith Richards of Taziki’s Mediterranean Café/The HOPE Program; Alicia Johnson Williams of Make It Happen Theatre
► Servant Leadership: Dr. Karim Budwhani of CerFlux, Inc.; Quan and Nga Nguyen of Dang’s Alterations
Over 100 nominations were received, and recipients were chosen by an independent panel. Winners were honored during a Jan. 28 virtual ceremony. The exhibit, The Vulcans Community Awards: Birmingham’s Best on View, and will be on view until May 10 inside the Linn-Henley Gallery at Vulcan Park & Museum.