KCETLink Celebrates Black History Mon, Honors Local Hers

CONTACT:

Ariel Carpenter at KCETLink Media Group

747-201-5243 or acarpenter@kcet.org

KCETLink Celebrates Black History Month, Honors Local Heroes

BURBANK, CA--February 4, 2015--In an ongoing commitment to reflect the diversity of our community, KCETLink Media Group honors two local heroes, Robin Petgrave, founder and executive director of Tomorrows Aeronautical Museum, and Dr. Ludlow Creary, a leader in minority healthcare, in celebration of Black History Month. Their outstanding contributions to improve and enrich the lives of others will be profiled on-air this month and online at www.kcet.org/heroes.

Since 1998, the Local Heroes program has paid tribute to exemplary leaders who are making a difference and enriching the lives of others by improving their community, region and the world at large. The 2015 Black History Month honorees demonstrate a shared commitment to providing their communities with the tools to thrive in todays changing world.

The 2015 Black History Month honorees are:

Robin Petgrave is the founder and executive director of Tomorrows Aeronautical Museum (TAM), a Compton-based youth organization that trains youths to fly aircrafts and engages at-risk youth in aviation as a positive influence in their lives. The organizations after-school program teaches kids Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)-related areas and encourages them to prepare for college, and most importantly, to dream big. TAM, located in a 7,000 sq. ft. hangar at Compton Airport, has become a safe haven for youth in the South LA community. The non-profit museum currently boasts a variety of historical artifacts and displays that explore minorities in the evolution of modern flight, and is the umbrella agency for Roots and Wings, a soon-to-be-launched mentoring and job training and skills development center. Petgrave has been recognized with the General Noel F. Parrish Award presented by the National Order of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.; the Astronaut Ronald McNair Award presented by National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees; and the Living Legend Award presented by LA County Board of Supervisors. In 2013, he was listed as one of the Power 100 by Ebony magazine.

Ludlow B. Creary, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.F.P., has made it his lifes work to serve minority residents of Greater Los Angeles with improved healthcare. In 1971, Dr. Creary and fellow physician Dr. George Jackson, Sr. spearheaded the opening of the historic West Adams Hospital, in the West Adams area of Los Angeles. The groundbreaking facility was the first of its size and scope to be owned and operated by black physicians in California providing over 1,000 jobs to the minority community. During this same period, Dr. Creary was also involved in the creation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital and assisted in the founding of a Specialty Board in Family Medicine. For over two decades Dr. Creary was Professor and Chair, the Department of Family Medicine, succeeding Dr. David Satcher, a former U.S. surgeon general. During his tenure in the 1980s he oversaw several new medical education programs, including the first Accreditation of the Department of Family Medicine. After retiring from the County of Los Angeles, Dr. Creary and his wife Ruth Creary, Ph.D., a psychologist, purchased the first Visiting Angels franchise in the cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Visiting Angels offers non-medical care-giving services primarily to seniors, but also patients during pre and post hospitalization. In addition to serving as Medical Director of Visiting Angels, a non-salaried position, Dr. Creary, has volunteered his time and expertise in many community health screenings and lectured at various non-profits and community programs all over the state of California, as well as Los Angeles.

About KCETLink Media Group

KCETLink Media Group is a national independent, nonprofit, digital and broadcast network that provides high-quality, culturally diverse programming designed to engage the public in innovative, entertaining and transformative ways. With a commitment to independent perspectives, smart global entertainment, local communities, and opportunities for engagement and social action, KCETLink depicts people and the world through a lens unavailable elsewhere in U.S. media. A viewer-supported 501(c)(3) organization, KCETLink content is distributed via satellite on DirecTV 375 and DISH Network 9410, in Southern and Central California via broadcast, as well as through various digital delivery systems. KCET and Link TV are services of KCETLink Media Group. For additional information about KCET and Link TV productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org or linktv.org.

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