Celebrations for Sun Prairie’s Black students return as the next Black Excellence Achievement Makers (B.E.A.M.) Awards get ready for this annual run.
This coming Sunday at Sun Prairie West High School, the B.E.A.M. Awards will host its sixth annual community recognition dedicated to highlighting Black students to uplift them to achieve great things in their lives. This year, 750 students, staff, leaders and parents will be recognized for excellence in academics, teamwork, peer leadership and extraordinary growth.
Marilyn Ruffin, the founder of The B.E.A.M. Awards who is also a former Sun Prairie School Board member, had two sons who graduated from Sun Prairie schools. While they were on the basketball team during a strong time for the team, the lack of recognition for its players and other Black students largely was lacking for anything outside of academic achievement during graduation.
“Even though they had a 3.0 grade point average, that never seemed to be high enough for the type of award banquets that the district would hold that typically didn’t include people that look like me,” Ruffin said.
She created The B.E.A.M. Awards to address the issue she saw. Ruffin aims to “shine a beam,” she said, playing on Sun Prairie’s name, and put a spotlight on Black excellence. Ruffin also notes that while there is some level of recognition that comes at graduation, not every student makes it there.
“There’s no guarantee that everyone here will still be here when it comes to graduation, especially when you have a lot of families going in and out of cities, in and out of districts — let’s celebrate them now,” Ruffin said. “Black people need people who believe in Black people enough not to believe in everything negative.”
The B.E.A.M. Awards aim to be a large-scale community event for all in celebration. With 750 achievements handed out, Ruffin expects to see even more than that in attendance but has a plan to keep every satisfied throughout the event.
This year will be the first time the awards will be hosted indoors and feature a market for family and community members to shop around and learn more about some of Sun Prairie’s Black-owned businesses.
The B.E.A.M. Awards will be held at Sun Prairie West High School, 2850 Ironwood Dr., on May 5 starting at 2 p.m. The event is free for all to attend. No registration is required.
