Media gallery

The Tenth Annual Wilkins Awards Dinner

Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center

January 13, 2015

Held on the first night of the legislative session each year and attended by political, community, and business leaders, the Wilkins Awards Dinner promotes citizenship, public service, and bipartisan governing. Each year we honor the leadership, courage, vision, and integrity of one South Carolina legislator and one South Carolina civic leader. View this year’s program | Read Furman’s news release | Read Columbia Region Business Report’s article | Read Statehouse Report’s article | Read The Hartsville Messenger’s article

Jay Lucas, speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives

2014 Wilkins Award for Legislative Leadership

Representative Lucas has served South Carolina as a member of the House since 1999 and as speaker pro tempore since 2010, and he is widely praised for his ability to keep the legislative body working together on a variety of issues.

 

Bill Barnet, CEO of Barnet Development Corporation and former mayor of Spartanburg

2014 Wilkins Award for Civic Leadership

Currently, Bill Barnet is deeply involved in Spartanburg’s Northside revitalization initiative, a community partnership which is transforming this neighborhood and creating an infrastructure of opportunity for its residents.

 

Bob Schieffer, long time television journalist and host of CBS News Face the Nation, gave the keynote address.

Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and has worked at CBS News since 1969. He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: Pentagon, White House, Congress and State Department. He has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon as well as most of those who sought the office. Schieffer has won virtually every award in broadcast journalism, including seven Emmys, the overseas Press Club Award, the Paul White Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award.