Charles Pearl

Margaret O’Donnell’s name is on the Frankfort Interfaith Council’s 2021 Ruby Layson Award for promoting the interfaith qualities of justice, compassion and human kindness. But the October evening she was recognized as the award recipient, O’Donnell quickly mentioned, in a kind way, that the plaque also should have included Becky Shipp’s name. Attorney O’Donnell, founder and executive director of the Frankfort Immigration Assistance Network (FIAN), thanked the council for recognizing immigrants. “Migration is the human condition, folks moving to find better opportunities and to be safe,” O’Donnell said. “Borders are unnatural barriers to that human condition. Immigrants are good,...

Raymonde Jacques, better known as Ms. Mondy in Frankfort, grew up in the small village of Samadek in the mountains of Haiti without the privilege of nearby schools and medical care. She says she “got just enough education to survive.” But Kentucky friends, who know of her lifelong commitment to helping less fortunate children get an education in her native country, feel she’s earned honorary doctorates in education and human services. She also loves working as a preschool teacher’s aide, which she has done for decades at Frankfort Independent’s Second Street School. “They call me a jack-of-all trades. I...