Awards, May 30, 2002

The following awards have been presented for achievement in community service, fund raising, philanthropy, and research:

AIDS. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (Santa Monica, Calif.) has announced the recipients of its new International Leadership Awards, which provide three-year, $450,000 grants to help physicians in resource-poor countries develop programs to combat pediatric AIDS. The inaugural awards went to Celia Christie of Kingston, Jamaica; Dorothy Mbori-Ngacha of Nairobi, Kenya; and Francine Noel of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Civic affairs. Bernard C. Watson, former president of the William Penn Foundation (Philadelphia) and a long-time activist with the National Urban League and the National Urban Coalition, has received the 2001 Philadelphia Award. Mr. Watson currently serves as president of the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation (Merion, Pa.) and as chairman of the board for the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. The award, presented annually to a Philadelphia resident who has contributed greatly to regional civic affairs, was established in 1921 by Edward William Bok, a philanthropist, publisher, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Civil and human rights. The Colin Higgins Foundation (San Francisco) has announced the recipients of its 2002 Courage Awards, which honor bravery in the face of discrimination and bigotry based on sexual orientation. This year’s awards went to D. Patrick Bynum, of Ozark, Mo., who appeared twice before his local school board to request protection from beatings and harassment from fellow students; Vanessa Duran, of Berkeley, Calif., a 17-year-old activist and artist; Eva Leivas-Andino, of Miami, who works full time as an advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youths; and Calvin Warren, a gay-rights activist who is a graduating senior at Cornell U. (Ithaca, N.Y.).

Corporate giving. The White House and the Conference Board have named the recipients of this year’s Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership in employee and community relations:

— SBC Communications (San Antonio), for its supplier diversity program, through which the company last year spent nearly 24 percent of its procurement budget on purchases from businesses owned by minorities, women, and disabled veterans.

— The Timberland Company (Stratham, N.H.), for its Path of Service program, through which over 2,500 employees have performed more than 180,000 hours of community service. The company pays its employees for spending up to 40 hours each year doing volunteer work.

— Wal-Mart Stores (Bentonville, Ark.), for its Wal-Mart Foundation Good Works Community Involvement Programs, through which employees of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club last year raised and contributed more than $190-million to some 50,000 community organizations.

Education fund raising. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (Washington) has announced the winners of the 2002 CASE Common-fund Institutionally Related Foundation Awards, bestowed upon individuals who have contributed to their own foundations as well as to the broader network of foundations affiliated with colleges, universities, and university systems. The winners are: John K. Martin, president and chief executive officer of the U. of Maryland Foundation and vice chancellor for advancement at the University System of Maryland (College Park), for professional leadership at a foundation with assets of $100-million or more; Julia Kilduff, executive director of the Lewis and Clark Community College Foundation (Godfrey, Ill.), for professional leadership at a foundation with assets under $100-million; and James W. Leslie, former executive director of the U. of Rhode Island Foundation (Kingston), who won the Service Award for his role in founding the Society of Institutionally Related Foundations.

Libraries. The American Library Association (Chicago) has presented its 2002 Gale Group Financial Development Award to the Haines Borough Public Library (Haines, Alaska). The award, which carries a $2,500 prize donated by the Gale Group, recognizes exemplary fund-raising campaigns by public or academic libraries. The library, which serves a remote Alaskan community encompassing 2,500 square miles, raised $3.2-million to build a new public library and to redesign the current library as municipal offices.