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The Morgantown Human Rights Commission will spotlight local residents and organizations that exemplify the spirit of diversity and human rights in the community with its annual Human Rights Day Awards.
The award winners for 2021 will be Bob Pirner for the individual award and Milan Puskar Health Right for the group/organization award.
The awards will recognize contributions toward helping to make Morgantown a more inclusive community and to protect the human rights of all.
The awards will be presented at 7 p.m. Tuesday during the Morgantown City Council meeting.
Award recipients will speak at a special ceremony at 7:30 p.m. that day inside the Monongalia Arts Center on High Street; masks are mandatory.
A Facebook live event will be streamed via the Human Rights Commission’s Facebook page (Facebook.com/MorgantownHRC).
The community is invited to view the event online and celebrate Human Rights Day.
The Rev. Zac Morton, of the First Presbyterian Church of Morgantown, will be the keynote speaker and the award recipients will be recognized and will speak briefly about their experiences.
Pirner, a U.S. Navy veteran, is originally from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and is one of an estimated 5,000 fluent speakers of the Lakota Sioux language. He has spent 32 years in West Virginia working to help people with disabilities find independence. Pirner has made many contributions to human rights and community service organizations for many years.
During his time as the development officer at SteppingStones, an organization that uses recreation as a means of helping people with disabilities, he was instrumental in the organization’s expansion. After his recovery from cancer in 2009, Pirner joined PACE Enterprises, which helps disabled job seekers find employment through evaluation, training and placement, as director of development.
He is a co-founder of Operation Welcome Home, which offers employment resources and other services for military veterans; and Miracle League Baseball, which serves disabled children and adults who are excluded from conventional baseball leagues.
Pirner’s Lakota mentors taught him to see the good in everyone, even when it’s not easy. His ethic of service to human rights has led him to work hard on disability issues, youth development, Native American causes, economic development and community organizing.
Milan Puskar Health Right was founded in 1984, based on the belief that basic health care is a human right. What began as a “treat and street” clinic, has become a full-scale primary care clinic addressing physical, emotional and behavioral health needs and providing harm-reduction/syringe access to some our most vulnerable citizens. Milan Puskar Health Right also operates two mental health recovery drop-in centers in Monongalia and Marion counties (Friendship House and Friendship Fairmont) with an emphasis on peer recovery support and linkage to needed services as well as activities to strengthen recovery, self-esteem and general well-being.
The purpose of the Human Rights Day Awards is to acknowledge outstanding works taking place in Morgantown and those who put forth the effort to make a difference and working toward the global purpose of Human Rights.
The purpose of the Human Rights Commission is to provide leadership for addressing community interaction and fairness concerns.
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