Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 12:00 noon Hyatt Regency Hotel, Coral Gables
The Rotary Club of Coral Gables is pleased to announce that the Martin Hughes Citizen of the Year Award for 2019 is being presented to the Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen , former congress woman from the City of Coral Gables.
The Award, named for Martin Hughes, the Rotarian who originally conceived the program, has been presented to Coral Gables’ outstanding citizens since 2006. Previous winners include many community leaders including David Lawrence, Roxcy Bolton, William H. Kerdyk, Pedro Greer, Mayor Dorothy Thompson to name a few.
The Citizen of the Year Honoree is selected based on the following criteria:
- They must reside in Coral Gables continuously for the preceding 5 years
- Their contributions should not be limited to one specific field
- Community contributions must have been sustained over an extended period and be generally recognized in the community.
This year’s committee, chaired by local architect, Felix Pardo, had no difficulty selecting the candidate for her outstanding work on behalf of Florida and Coral Gables for the past 30 years.
Ms. Lehtinen, represented Florida’s 27th congressional district from 1989 to 2019. By the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She was Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2011–2013. In 1989, she won a special election and became the first Cuban American and Latina elected to Congress. She was also the first Republican woman elected to the House from Florida. Ros-Lehtinen gave the first Republican response to the State of the Union address in Spanish in 2011, and gave the third in 2014.
In September 2011, she became the first Republican member of the U.S. Congress to co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. In July 2012, she was the first Republican in the House to support same-sex marriage. She retired from Congress at the end of her term in 2018.
The Rotary Club of Coral Gables will honor Ileana Ros-Lehtinen at the Club Luncheon on Thursday, May 23, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables, 50 Alhambra Plaza beginning at 12 Noon. If you would like to attend the luncheon, the cost is $29 per person. For more information or to RSVP for the luncheon, please email to rotarycoralgables@gmail.com.
