Martin didn't even realize she'd won the award until early in April. Carroll nominated the couple in March.
"I knew they were a shoo-in for the award," Carroll said yesterday, "because of their ability to recognize the potential of uplifting the youth in the community. Dr. Elmer used to say cultural development and community development go hand in hand."
Shortly after the 40th-anniversary observance of King's assassination, Carroll noticed the return address on a piece of FedEx mail was Morehouse College. That's when she knew the Martins had won.
Elmer Martin died of a heart attack in 2001 and received his award posthumously. Joanne Martin remembers her reaction when she heard that she and her late husband had won.
"Shock and amazement at first," Martin said. "I was honored. It was very humbling."
So humbling, in fact, that Martin didn't seem to want to talk about herself. During our interview, she was more than glad to let Carroll do most of the talking. And when Martin did speak, it was about her husband or the youngsters who've benefited from the internships GBIW has offered over the years.
Even when I mentioned the paucity of local media coverage of the couple winning the award, Martin returned to her main focus, her passion, her - and GBIW's - raison d'etre: the children.
"Rarely is there any interest in what these children are doing," Martin said. "If they walk out of here and gun someone down, then they will get the attention."
But Martin knows their stories. She knows about William Redmond, the GBIW assistant facilities manager who's a former summer intern at the museum. She remembers the guy who said his goal is to be president of GBIW one day, and the girl who said she wanted to study business in college so she could run the museum's gift shop.
When those two started their internships, Martin recalled, they, and others, were interested only in being pro athletes or - ugh! - rappers.
"For me," Martin said, "it's still about youth and giving them a sense of their potential, showing them the possibilities rather than the probabilities of life."
greg.kane@baltsun.com
