A Bowling Green native who has served the community for years is the recipient of the city’s 2024 Drum Major for Peace award.

Emily Dunipace accepted the plaque at a ceremony held Wednesday in the Wood County District Public Library Atrium.

The award is named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is given annually by the Bowling Green Human Relations Commission to someone who benefits the BG community and exemplifies the teaching and the values of King — courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service.

Dunipace is a community engagement specialist for the Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities and is co-chair of Not In Our Town.

“I’m proud and honored to be the recipient,” she said.

She noted the previous recipients were highly admired in the city for making it a better community.

“To be included in their company is a tremendous honor,” she said.

Dunipace said she was raised in an era where one of life’s most persistent questions was what we were going to do for others.

“We were taught the value of service,” she said.

We weren’t judged by what we achieved but rather by what we had helped others achieve, she said.

Dunipace said she is proud to live in Bowling Green, where she sees people doing good deeds every day and making contributions.

Dunipace is a 1974 Bowling Green High School graduate and earned her Bachelor of Science in education from Ohio State University. She taught for 23 years in California before joining the county board as a volunteer coordinator.

In the spirit of building community, she invited audience members to stand up and introduce themselves to someone they didn’t know.

Dunipace said she was influenced by the teachings of Dr. King.

“He encouraged us to promote peace and love and to walk together to create a community where we can all live side by side in peace. A peaceful society where everyone can strive,” she said.

A teacher to the core, she challenged everyone to emulate Dr. King and continue his teachings and envision a world without discrimination and racism, to actively promote peace, and celebrate diversity and not divisiveness.

“If any one of us is being marginalized, then we are all at risk of being marginalized,” she said.

Dunipace said after the presentation that she emulates King by completing small and simple acts such as acknowledging another person, smiling, using her turn signals and letting another person go first.

“Those are all things we all can do and contribute, and it makes the world a better place. Everybody has the ability of thinking of other people besides yourself,” she said.

She is a previous member of the Human Relations Commission and the Bowling Green Community Foundation.

“Those are not words on a paper you are reciting. You live them,” said Mayor Mike Aspacher.

Ana Brown, who co-chairs NIOT with Dunipace, was the keynote speaker.

Problems Dr. King wrote about still plague the U.S. 60 years later.

“But these problems are not new,” Brown said.

Dr. King addressed racism and while there has been considerable progress, problems still exist, she said.

The wealth gap between Black and White America has remained largely unchanged since Dr. King was alive; housing and health disparity still exists; a disproportionate number of Black men are criminalized and imprisoned; and the gaps in opportunity haven’t been fixed.

“When Black America prospers, all of the U.S. benefits,” Brown said.

The nation is more polarized now than it has been in decades, and little room has been made for listening, discussing and reasoning together, she said.

The remedy that Dr. King suggested is still applicable, moving from a “thing” oriented society to a “person” oriented society and becoming a socially conscious democracy.

Brown ended by quoting Dr. King.

“Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”