For the past 12 years, members and friends of the UFT African-American Heritage Committee have gathered to mark Black History Month and to honor those who exemplify the group’s ideals. Once again, on Feb. 6, 270 celebrants gathered at a Queens catering hall for their annual awards dinner dance focusing this year on the theme Together We Can. The Trailblazer Award went to UFT Manhattan Borough Representative Dwayne Clark, the Mary McLeod Bethune Award to teacher Shameeka Hunter-Tindal of PS 81 in Brooklyn and the Frederick Douglass Award to Valentin Colon, the president of Local 1930 DC 37 AFSCME. The Armando Blasse Scholarship, in memory of the former union activist and UFT District 3 representative, went to student Michaela Dixon of the Frederick Douglass Academy in Manhattan. Anthony Harmon, the chairman of the committee and an assistant to the UFT president, presided over the awards ceremony.