This year the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has recognized dozens of local organizations that have continued to supply the needs of daily life for all Savannahians in the face of remarkable hardship and historic events by presenting them with the SCAD Salutes award.

On Friday, November 12, SCAD brought all the recipients together at the university's Poetter Hall for a special reception. These organizations have demonstrated virtues long held in highest esteem at SCAD:   CREATIVITY, KINDNESS, GRIT, and GOODNESS.

Since March, SCAD has honored 48 local businesses including Union Mission, Blessings in a Book Bag, Perry Lane Hotel, Visit Savannah, Currey Dry Cleaners, Hansen Architects, Bethesda Academy, Sisters of the New South restaurant, sociologist/author Dr. Bertice Berry, COVID-19 vaccine researcher Dr. Paul Bradley and many others who have persevered to bring goods and services to their neighbors amid circumstances that would have seemed unfathomable a short while ago. They are heroes to their customers, clients, and communities.

SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace said, “This season of the year is all about one word: gratitude - gratitude for neighbors, for blessings, and for the friendships that have sustained us.  They have blessed SCAD, and they have blessed this city. They uplift their communities and clients before themselves and they do it every day, even in the midst of the strangest, hardest two years in our collective experience”

“Each recipient was asked to lead in new ways, but most of us were unsure how best to do so. All of us were vulnerable. None of us had been through anything like this before,” said Visit Savannah President and CEO Joe Marinelli.  “I want to thank President Paula Wallace for creating SCAD Salutes and for recognizing and acknowledging that we indeed are all in this together."

For more information about the SCAD Salutes Award and the recipients visit scad.edu/salutes