MWC grad, Hudson to receive national awards

Midwest City School graduate Lester Claravall will receive the prestigious Lewis Hines Award for Service to Children and Youth during a ceremony in New York City on Monday.

The award will be presented by the National Child Labor Committee, which serves as the sponsor for the Lewis Hines awards.

Claravall, who graduated from Midwest City in 1985, works as the child labor director for the Oklahoma Department of Labor. His award is based on his crusade to ensure teenage workers are safe and protected when in the work environment. For the past 15 years, he has been responsible for child labor educational outreach and enforcement efforts throughout Oklahoma.

National acclaim

Claravall serves as the national president of the Interstate Labor Standards Association, and has brought states together to address national child labor issues.

He has co-authored recommendations that led to the successful revisions made to the non-agricultural federal child labor laws, and increased protection in the United States.

On an international level, Claravall led an international workshop held in Washington, D.C. that helped 25 countries around the globe develop strategies to eradicate hazardous child labor and reduce the number of young worker injuries and fatalities worldwide.

While working for the state labor department, Claravall also has created numerous publications and educational tools designed to educate employers, educators, parents and youth about child labor laws. One of those publications was Oklahoma’s first door-to-door safety awareness poster and brochure designed to protect children against exploitation and endangerment in youth peddling, which is ranked as the nation’s most dangerous teen occupation.

Claravall also created the award-winning, interactive classroom game “Paying Attention Pays.” The game was honored by Cable in the Classroom as a national model for educating school officials and students about workplace rights and job safety.

David T. Kearns Award

Another Oklahoman, J. Clifford Hudson, will be honored for his successful efforts to raise more than $500 million and orchestrate the rebuilding and turnaround of the Oklahoma City Public Schools, which educates more than 40,000 students each year.

Hudson is chairman and chief executive officer of Sonic Corporation. Hudson has spent the last 28 years of his career at Sonic, a publicly-traded, Oklahoma-based company. He has been affiliated with 

many nonprofit and community activities. He currently serves as trustee of the Ford Foundation in New York and is the immediate past chairman of the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He served as chairman of the Oklahoma City Board of Education from 2001 to 2008.

Hudson is the second recipient of the David T. Kearns Award for Excellence and Innovation in Education.

Named for the acclaimed NCLC photographer who documented early-20th Century exploitation of children, the Lewis Hines Awards honor those individuals who, either as professionals or volunteers give of themselves for the well-being of young people.

The award recipients are selected by a panel of judges from among hundreds of nominations submitted each year by business, community and nonprofit leaders.