The award to Bilal Eksili is one of the highest awards the state of Indiana gives to its citizens.
The lieutenant governor hosted the event and praised the organization for bringing together people of all different cultures and religions.
"The Niagara Foundation has done so much to make an Indiana an even better place to live and to work. I'm here to encourage them to keep up their good work. The governor and I have traveled the globe in an attempt to create more relationship for partnerships that benefit all of our people, let's face it any success we have in life either personally or professionally is due to the strength of our relationships, that's wha the Niagara foundation is all about and we're delighted to have them very strong in the state of Indiana." said, Lit. Governor Becky Skillman
Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders as well as state and local politicans all gathered for the annual dinner organized by the foundation and the American Midwest Turkey coalition. They ate Turkish food and even got to have their names written in Turkish by a calligrapher.
Among the distinguished guests was Michael Welsh, the head of the FBI in Indiana. Welsh said the Niagara Foundation helped him open a dialogue between the FBI and the Muslim community.
"I've been in Indiana for approximately three years and the Niagara foundation has done a wonderful job in bringing the community together, building bridges between law enforcement and the community and in that regard it's served the community at large very well", said, Michael Welch, a special FBI agent in charge.
Some guests also said they appreciate the opportunity to travel to Turkiye with the Niagara foundation to get to know Turkish culture first hand.
"The unique thing I think is the initiative and the agressiveness they have in terms of trying to eduate people of different cultures, inviting people to come and try and learn about their culture, their heritage. maybe take the trip overseas, I'm going to try to make plans to go next year. it's a poem I once read, I think it was Thoreau who wrote the peome , the most precious thing you can learn from a human being is the art of understanding. This interaction of culture goes a long way of putting me in the way of learning the art of understanding", said, Lonnie M. Randolph, a State Senator.
The Niagara Foundation is based in Chicago.
The Niagara Foundation Receives Indiana's Distinguished Hoosier Award
Indiana Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman presented the executive director of the Niagara Foundation with the state's Distinguished Hoosier Award, at the organization's third annual intercultural Dialogue Dinner.