Three Mountain Brook residents are among this year’s recipients of The Vulcans Community Awards.
The awards, given by the Vulcan Park Foundation since 2014, honor citizens in the Birmingham metro who exemplify “civic pride, progress and leadership,” said Morgan Black, director of marketing and PR at Vulcan Park and Museum.
The 13 recipients of The Vulcans for 2017 were announced in September. Honorees are all chosen by a citizens panel in five awards categories at two levels, The Vulcans and The Spears.
Charles A. Collat Sr., chairman emeritus of Mayer Electric and community volunteer, was honored for lifetime achievement at The Vulcans level; Attorney Tom Thagard III, Kiwanis Club of Birmingham president, was named a Game Changer at The Vulcans level; and Hatton Smith, the CEO emeritus of Royal Cup Coffee who helped save UAB football, was named a Game Changer at The Spears level.
The Vulcans tends to recognize life achievement, while The Spears honor “works that have been initiated and have promising capabilities,” Black said.
Recipients will be honored at a dinner at The Club, Thursday, Nov. 2, hosted by WBRC-TV anchor Jonathan Hardison.
Charles Collat Sr.
Charles Collat Sr.
Over the decades, Collat and his late wife, Patsy Weil Collat, who died in 2015, supported many causes, including United Way and Emmett O’Neal Library.
The Collats made gifts of about $25 million to UAB, which is building the new Collat School of Business on University Boulevard.
Collat said his commitment to community stemmed from a long-held value.
“All my life, I’ve lived by the precept to do good and be better, and I like to help where and when help is needed,” Collat said.
Collat also said he likes to be proactive.
“I don’t like to live with a problem, and sometimes all you have to do is to think what is necessary, and take action to alleviate the problem,” Collat said. “The more problems I saw the more I got involved and when you have been around as long as I have they accumulate.”
Community involvement is satisfying, according to Collat.
“You get an intrinsic reward that can’t be measured in dollars when you interact with those who have been touched by your efforts,” Collat said.
Tom Thagard
Tom Thagard
Under Thagard’s leadership, KCOB — to celebrate its 100th birthday — launched a fundraising campaign and began construction in May for the new Kiwanis Centennial Park, a $4.66 million project.
It involves significant improvements to the neglected north side of Vulcan Park, a new light show for the statue and the addition of the Vulcan Trail for walking and jogging.
Thagard said he’s honored to accept the award, but on behalf of KCOB for having “undertaken a transformational project.”
The club is working with the city of Birmingham, Vulcan Park and Museum and Freshwater Land Trust on the project.
“Our city is blessed with an incredible assortment of people and organizations truly committed to bettering our Magic City. Getting to know and work with these groups has been quite inspiring and motivating for me,” he said.
Thagard said he believes in the potential impact of the new park.
“Birmingham is on the cusp of a renaissance, and Kiwanis Centennial Park builds on many wonderful projects already happening in the city and will hopefully catalyze the realization of other outstanding ideas that are on the drawing board,” Thagard said.
Hatton Smith
Hatton Smith
UAB pulled the plug on football in December 2014 — despite a respectable 6-6 record in Head Coach Bill Clark’s first year.
But the Blazers are back in Legion Field this year playing their first season in three years, in part due to a groundswell of public support for the program.
And much credit goes to a group of Birmingham-area business people, including Smith, who raised enough money — about $40 million in 15 months — to revive the team and build new facilities.
Smith said that he’s “delighted, like any other human being, to receive recognition” but stresses that many people contributed to the return of UAB football.
“That is really a community award as opposed to an individual award, because I was just one part of the puzzle,” Smith said.
It was embarrassing for Birmingham, located in the football-mad South, to lose its own program, Smith said.
“It was a defeat,” he said.
And the effort to save UAB football created an impetus to improve the BJCC, build a new stadium and redo Legion Field, according to Smith.
“So the return of UAB football was not just about UAB football but about in investment in the city,” Smith said.
The fund drive was “a rallying cry,” Smith said. “It was about where the city is heading.”
Smith believes that “the future is bright” for the Birmingham metro.
“It’s satisfying to… see the progress we are making as a community, and I think the citizenry see good things happening – for example, UAB football and Railroad Park,” he said.
To learn more about the other recipients and the awards banquet, call 933-1409 or go tovisitvulcan.com.
