Severna Park Woman Wins Martin Luther King Award

The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast was held at the La Fontaine Bleue restaurant in Glen Burnie January 16, and among the year’s honorees was Severna Park resident Abbie Ellicott, who won the Dallas G. Pace Sr. Humanitarian Award.

The Dallas G. Pace Sr. Humanitarian Award recognizes the achievements of, or contributions made by, any person who has significantly enhanced the realization of human relations objectives for the betterment of the people of Anne Arundel County.

Ellicott is a wife, mother and psychologist who has lived in Severna Park for the past 27 years with her husband, Howard.

She has always supported the LGBTQ community, as she has close family members and many friends who are gay. Over the years, she has seen people in that community experience discrimination and hardship as they fought for basic civil rights, funding for AIDS health care and research, the right to adopt children, and marriage equality.

In 2016, she felt compelled to get personally involved in advocacy for the LGBTQ community due to the direction the country was taking. Ellicott began working with a local advocacy group called WISE (Women, Indivisible, Strong and Effective), participating in its LGBTQ Advocacy huddle. Through the women in this group, she gained valuable experience in how to effect political change on a local level.

WISE was integrally involved in the passage of a bill that banned conversion therapy for minors in Maryland in 2017, working closely with the Human Rights Campaign, Annapolis Pride and Free State Justice. In 2020, the WISE huddle evolved into the Coalition for LGBTQ+ Students, which tackled the issue of enhancing protections for LGBTQ youth in local schools. The coalition advocated for the Board of Education policy called the Safe and Inclusive Environments for LGBTQ+ Students, which was passed by Anne Arundel County Public Schools in 2021. Currently, the coalition is working to ensure that greater safety and protections are present for all students in county schools, especially those in marginalized groups such as gay students and BIPOC (Black, indigenous and people of color) students.

Ellicott plans to continue her advocacy work to improve the lives of all.

The theme of this year’s annual breakfast, organized by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast Committee was, “We will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”

Here are all the 2023 honorees:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award

Selected and presented by the Human Relations Commission, City of Annapolis

Presented to Joshua Hatch 

Dallas G. Pace Sr. Humanitarian Award

Selected and presented by the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission

Presented to Abbie Ellicott 

Alan Hilliard Legum Humanitarian Award

Selected and presented by the Anne Arundel Coalition of Tenants Inc. 

Presented to Faye Gaskin 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Zeitgeist Award

Selected and presented by Anne Arundel Community College

Presented to Kimberly Jackson and Winnie Shabazz 

Leon H. White Clergy Memorial Award

Selected and presented by United Black Clergy of Anne Arundel County

Presented to Phillip G. Duncan

George H. Phelps Jr. Distinguished Citizen Award

Selected and presented by Anne Arundel County NAACP

Presented to Skye Bailey