Milwaukee Press Club to honor local ‘superheroes’

The Milwaukee Press Club will honor southeastern Wisconsin’s “superheroes” at its annual Milwaukee City Birthday Party next week.

MPC called upon the community to nominate the heroes among us and received dozens of nominations. Its board of governors and the party planning committee chose 10 winners. They were held up for accomplishments as varied as donating an organ to serving as a spiritual leader to mentoring at-risk youth.

The winners are:

• Shariff Brookens, a Milwaukee teenager with a life-threatening medical condition who used his Make-A-Wish to hold a fundraiser for local charities;
• Darienne Driver, superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, who has increased attendance, improved literacy and improved ratings for the city’s schools;
• JoAnn Eiring, a BizTimes Health Care Hero and Brookfield municipal court judge who donated a kidney to Milwaukee municipal court judge Derek Mosley;
• Andre Ellis, who started a mentoring program for at-risk African-American youth in the 53206 zip code;
• Tom Ellis, who came out of retirement to serve as executive director of the floundering Silver Spring Neighborhood Center to ensure residents of Westlawn have access to crucial services and programs;
• Father Tim Kitzke, vicar general of urban ministries for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee;
• Vincent Noth, executive director of Riverwest Food Pantry, which he has transformed into a resource hub for the community;
• Tom Pechacek, electrical services operations manager for the City of Milwaukee, who is on-call at all hours to keep the lights on;
• the Precious Lives team, which told stories through print and broadcast media about how gun violence impacts Milwaukee;
• and Marty Schreiber, one-time Wisconsin governor and an advocate for caregivers of those living with Alzheimer’s disease.

The event will be held Thursday, Jan. 26, at The Grain Exchange, 225 E. Michigan St. in Milwaukee. Cost is $35, free for MPC members, and includes appetizers, beer and birthday cake. For more information or to register, visit the Milwaukee Press Club.