© The Wichita Eagle
Jan. 13, 1999
Three Honored For Community Service
Wayne Bryan, Beverly Gutierrez and Amanda Zinn
Are Recognized for Their Efforts in Helping Others and Promoting Inclusiveness
by Joe Rodriguez
Beverly Gutierrez spent many of her years watching people of different racial backgrounds focus on only that - their differences.
Gutierrez, who is black, grew up in a segregated Wichita in the 1930s. Decades later, she worked in the human relations department of the Wichita school district and too often saw the ugliness of the 1970s race riots.
"I have lived in all these worlds," Gutierrez said, "and what I have found, too, is everybody's got all the same problems underneath... We all need each other."
Such a message is part of the reason Gutierrez, a former Wichita school principal, was named on Tuesday the recipient of the National Conference for Community and Justice's A. Price Woodard Jr. Award.
At a news conference Tuesday, the NCCJ, formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews, also announced the recipients of its other two annual awards.
Wayne Bryan, producing director of Music Theatre of Wichita, is the recipient of the Brotherhood-Sisterhood Award, which honors people who promote the spirit of understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures.
And Amanda Zinn, an 18-year-old senior at Southeast High School, was named the recipient of the NCCJ's second annual Amie Montgomery Memorial Youth Award. Montgomery was shot and killed in 1997 during a robbery. The NCCJ created the award to honor her leadership and commitment to community and to recognize teens who show special leadership skills and community service.
The recipients will be honored at an awards dinner March 9 at Beech Activity Center.
Zinn works as a tutor at a Wichita elementary school and at her church. She also has worked as a volunteer at Rainbows United.
"I think it goes to show that there are more than bad kids out in the community of Wichita," Zinn said after the news conference, "and there are kids that are working to do good. I'm honored to be recognized as one of the good youth."
For more than a decade now in Wichita, Bryan said he has tried to ensure that the cast on the stage was multiracial. The Music Theatre has done that in part, he said, by casting people of different ethnic backgrounds in roles traditionally played by white actors.
"We've tried to make our environment one that welcomes all deserving and creative people," he said, "and ignored distinctions that might make someone feel excluded."
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