Awards, Feb 11, 1999

The following awards have been presented for work in philanthropy, fund raising, volunteerism, and non-profit management:

Humanitarianism. The Caring Institute (Washington) has presented its National Caring Awards, which honor 10 individuals annually who “ennoble the human race by transcending self in service to others.” The winners:

— Ray Buchanan and Ken Horne, who created the Society of St. Andrew, an ecumenical ministry that focuses on hunger in America, and Stop Hunger Now, a non-profit group that works on solutions to hunger worldwide.

— Thomas Cannon, a retired postal clerk from Richmond, Va., who has donated more than $100,000 to needy people — in $1,000 increments — despite never having earned more than $32,000 annually during his working life.

— Justin Dart, Jr., a disability-rights advocate whose work contributed greatly to the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

— Robert DeBlois, founder of the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program (Providence, R.I.), a public school that provides programs for 13- and 14-year-olds who are at high risk for academic failure and violent behavior.

— Joseph Gamarano, executive director of Cafe Joshua (Boca Raton, Fla.), which serves meals to homeless people in a restaurant-like environment and provides them with legal advice, medical care, computer training, and other services.

— Camille Geraldi, founder of the Possible Dreams Foundation (Miami), through which she cares for children with Down syndrome and other severe mental and physical disabilities who have been shunned by their families or abandoned.

— Carl Hammerschlag, a psychiatrist and author who has spent more than 30 years working with American Indians and integrating native healing philosophies into psychoneuroimmunology, which emphasizes the connections between the body, mind, and spirit.

— Anne Medlock, founder of the Giraffe Project (Langley, Wash.), a leadership and community-service curriculum that encourages teen-agers and young adults to “stick their necks out” for others.

— Cordelia Taylor, founder of Family House (Milwaukee), a non-profit residential facility for elderly people that accepts anyone in need regardless of their ability to pay.

— Danna Whorton, a 93-year-old who has worked as a hospice volunteer and advocate for more than two decades.

The institute’s International Award went to Claes Nobel, founder and chairman of United Earth, which awards the annual Earth Prize and carries out other environmental activities worldwide; Mr. Nobel also works extensively on issues related to peace and education.

Leadership. The Heinz Family Foundation (Pittsburgh) has announced the recipients of its 1998 Heinz Awards, which recognize outstanding leaders in five areas. Each recipient receives an unrestricted $250,000 prize.

— The Arts and Humanities: Walter J. Turnbull, founder of the Boys Choir of Harlem (New York), a program that uses music to help inner-city children become successful adults.

— The Environment: Lois Gibbs, founder of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes — now the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (Falls Church, Va.) — for her work to educate the public about the environmental and health hazards of chemicals and toxic waste; and Florence Robinson, a professor of biology at Southern U. A&M College (Baton Rouge, La.) who has waged a decade-long struggle against high rates of corporate pollution and toxic waste in “Cancer Alley,” an 80-mile strip of low-income, minority communities along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

— The Human Condition: Luis Garden Acosta and Frances Lucerna, a husband and wife who gave up their respective careers as a hospital administrator and a dancer to found El Puente (Brooklyn, N.Y.), a youth-development organization in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, which has a large Latino population. Mr. Garden Acosta is the founder and president of El Puente, and Ms. Lucerna is the founder and principal of its Academy for Peace and Justice.

— Public Policy: Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, for his long-time work to shape public debates and policies on such issues as welfare reform, nuclear proliferation, and the future of the Social Security system.

— Technology, the Economy, and Employment: Dean Kamen, an engineer, physicist, and inventor who holds more than 100 U.S. patents; he has founded Science Enrichment Encounters (Manchester, N.H.), an interactive science-education center, and U.S. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization that promotes public understanding of those fields and encourages children to see engineers and scientists as role models and heroes.

Non-profit research. The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (Indianapolis) has presented its 1998 awards for outstanding contributions to non-profit research. The winners:

— Distinguished book: Kathryn Kish Sklar, professor of history at the State U. of New York at Binghamton, for Florence Kelley and the Nation’s Work: The Rise of Women’s Political Culture, 1830-1900.

— Lifetime achievement: John G. Simon, professor at Yale Law School (New Haven, Conn.) and founding director of Yale’s Program on Non-Profit Organizations.

— Outstanding article published in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly: Susan M. Chambre, professor of sociology at Baruch College of the City U. of New York, for “Civil Society: Differential Resources, and Organizational Development: HIV/AIDS Organizations.”

The inaugural Gabriel G. Rudney Memorial Award for an Outstanding Dissertation in Non-Profit and Voluntary Action Research went to Loretta Sullivan Lobes for her dissertation at Carnegie Mellon U. (Pittsburgh), entitled “‘Hearts All Aflame’: Women in the Development of New Forms of Social Service Organizations, 1870-1930.”