Alama 'Ulu'ave wins Dorothy Richardson Award [1]
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 18:40. Updated on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 - 19:28.
A Tongan man in the United States, Alama 'Ulu'ave, has been awarded the prestigious Dorothy Richardson Award for his sefless contributions to his local community in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The annual Dorothy Richardson Award is bestowed by NeighborhoodWorks America, a US Congress chartered orgnization dedicated to supporting community development in the United States.
Alama currently serves on the on the Salt Lake City (Utah) school board, and is the first Pacific Islander to do so. He was commended by NeighborhoodWorks America for his courage in battling Lupus, a disease which required him to undergo two open-heart surgeries. Alama is also comended as a father - six of his seven daughters are college graduates, including one from Harvard.
In his acceptance speech on 13 October, Alama expressed his gratitude for the award and shared his some of his life experiences.
He said, “In 1967, my parents immigrated to the United States in search of a better life, America was their promise land,”
“Likewise for myself in 1986 I moved my family from Hawaii to Salt Lake City on the West Side in search for better opportunities and future for my children. There I looked for a steady job and cleaned toilets, doing what others did not want to do, that was my American dream, I started there.”
“I came down with Lupus, a debilitating disease and reality hit. I lost my health, I lost my job, I lost my hope of ever sending my kids to university. Often, I would lay in my hospital bed for weeks looking at the ceiling…I said ‘lord it is only me with you now, no one else is here, what should I do to take care of my seven kids and wife’….the answer was ‘go out and serve your neighbors’”.
Among his many contributions, Alama was credited for helping Tongan migrants in their quest to become US citizens.
Alama worked as a translator for the LDS church and a math tutor for local students. He also participated in community neighbourhood watch and the local Boy Scouts.