Bridgeway Wins Howard County Human Rights Award

“This past year, outstanding community members have stepped forward to serve, protect and stand in solidarity with residents in our county,” said Yolanda F. Sonnier, Administrator, Office of Human Rights and Equity. “These unsung heroes should be celebrated and acknowledged.”

Bridgeway is honored to accept the Colette Roberts Organization Award as part of this year’s Human Rights Commission Awards in Howard County! Here is what COO Frank Eastham said about receiving the award.

On behalf of the Bridgeway Community Church Elder Board (Elders and Elders Council of Women) and our Founding and Senior Pastor, Dr. David Anderson, I would like to express our gratitude for this outstanding honor.

As a former Human Rights Commissioner and Chair of the Commission, it is humbling to be on the receiving end of this award. It is a blessing to work for an organization like Bridgeway that shares the foundational belief with the Human Rights Commission that ALL people are important and deserve a voice in our community. We appreciate the hard work of the Human Rights Commission to protect and promote Human Rights among the diverse members of our community.

Bridgeway’s mission is to reach our community, culture, and world. We are blessed to have recently celebrated our 30-year anniversary following this mission! With a congregation representing over 52 nations, we believe we are living out the values of our county, the Human Rights Commission, and the Office of Human Rights and Equity.

Pastor Anderson uses the analogy of a thermostat to express the kind of environment we seek to foster at Bridgeway. I want you to think for a moment of a very good friend. Such a good friend that you regularly go to their house for dinner. Now, I want you to ask a question – Would you feel comfortable walking over and adjusting the thermostat in this person’s home? That’s a little awkward, right. Pastor Anderson has worked hard to cultivate a place where people of all ethnicities and cultures feel as they are welcomed, accepted, and are key contributors to the culture of Bridgeway. We want people from all nations to feel as though have the ability to adjust the temperature. We seek to accomplish this through our diverse styles of worship, our diverse serving teams, and certainly our diverse Clergy Team.

Receiving this award is very meaningful for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it recognizes that members of our community see the work we are doing. After all, COMMUNITY, is our middle name. Our mission is to Building into One Another – AS WE – Build Bridges to our Community.

Thank you Chair Markow and all of the commissioners for your significant contributions to our community and for presenting us with this award. We will display it proudly.

Colette Roberts Organization Award: Bridgeway Community Church (BCC) – BCC is a non-denominational, multicultural church that formed its name with the intent of building a bridge to the community through service that recognizes all people with dignity and believes all are worthy of equal human rights. BCC supports unhoused veterans and others with clothing and supplies to re-enter the workplace. It also has the largest non-profit food bank in Howard County, helps coordinate housing resources for abused women and children and hosted a vaccination clinic. BCC provides personal studies for the incarcerated and holiday gifts for their children.