Jefferson Awards: Sept-Dec 2006

2006 Bay Area Jefferson Award winners 
Dec 27, 2006
Next month, the 2006 Bay Area Jefferson Award winners will collect their medallions for extraordinary public service. The following winner is one example of all the public service done over the year.
A Place for Kids to be Kids

Building a Better World One Brick at a Time
Dec 20, 2006 7:30 pm US/Pacific
On a crisp autumn morning, a team of gardeners is working hard at Rhododendron Island in Golden Gate Park. But look closely, and you'll see not one is a professional gardener. Not one is paid to be here. These diligent workers spend their weekdays at jobs with investment firms, contractors, and technology companies.
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Sharing a New Beginning
Dec 13, 2006 10:17 am US/Pacific
After a decade of caring for her mother with Alzheimer's, Kendra Bryn Stewardson was out of money.
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Words of Caring
Dec 6, 2006 7:09 pm US/Pacific
Carmen Ortiz is grateful she's been cancer-free for almost 18 years. She was only 39 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Preserving the Past in Fremont
Nov 22, 2006 1:04 pm US/Pacific
Mission San Jose sits at the foot of the Fremont hills. It's hard to believe the busy boulevard it fronts was once the main street of a frontier community.
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Small Project Gets Big Boost
Nov 22, 2006 1:58 pm US/Pacific
Meilanny Haney and Deloris Vaughn never imagined their tiny project to feed a few homeless people would bring them here. So when we met them at the Oakland Grocery Outlet, they were stunned to hear Vice President John Wiley tell them what their story meant to his company.' 
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Writing New Chapters of Success
Nov 15, 2006 9:39 am US/Pacific
Five days a week, Frances Theiss shows up promptly at 8 a.m. ready to work, just as she did years ago when she taught elementary school. At 79, she's still teaching, but a very different kind of student. 
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Challenging Limits, Changing Worlds
Nov 8, 2006 7:17 pm US/Pacific
Victor Pineda was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley when he made his first documentary. His film "In Cuba Disabled" takes viewers on a personal journey.  "I began using film as a way of showing people what is possible; primarily to show myself what is possible," he says.
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Helping Nature's Balance Take Flight
Nov 1, 2006 11:41 am US/Pacific
Moving carefully in the crackling dry grass of a ranch in Marin, Alexandra Godbe and Maggie Rufo are slowly hoisting a long poll into the branches of a tall oak tree. "This is our little monitor," explains Alex, pointing at a small electronic box on her hip. "It's attached to a camera at the tip of the poll. We actually put it in the holes to check to see if there are any owls in the box."
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Helping Aphasia Patients Find Their Voices
Oct 25, 2006 7:14 pm US/Pacific
Whether she's in exercise class, turning her artwork into greeting cards, or participating in group therapy, Judi Briano is happy she found the Aphasia Center of California. She's been coming to the Center in Oakland since it opened 10 years ago, two years after she suffered a brain aneurysm.
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Lifting Voices, Opening Minds
Oct 18, 2006 7:16 pm US/Pacific
For the last fourteen years, Thomas Robert Simpson has provided a stage for hundreds of black artists in the Bay Area as founder and director of the AfroSolo Festival.  "I believe in theater, and in the arts in general, when the lights go down, I think people's minds open up," explains Thomas.
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Giving the Poor a Fresh Start
Oct 11, 2006 7:14 pm US/Pacific
From a small house behind St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek, you hear the sounds of a community. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Fresh Start opens its doors to the homeless and working poor of Walnut Creek. Served up with a healthy breakfast and lunch, is hope. 
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'Ambassador of Jazz' Shares Music With Kids
Oct 4, 2006 7:13 pm US/Pacific
For Eddie Gale, playing a horn has been almost a life-long passion, since he was introduced to the bugle in the early 50's as a Cub Scout.  "I liked it so much that I stayed through the Cub Scouts, and then the Boy Scouts at 12, and then the Explorers at 14," he says. "So I had a full-fledged time in scouting just to play the instrument." 
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Turning Tragedy Into Activism
Sep 27, 2006 6:39 pm US/Pacific
A single evening in the summer of 1978 changed Nadina Riggsbee's life forever. "We were told there had been an accident," Nadina said. "A pool accident." Her two-year-old daughter and one-year-old son were home with a babysitter. 
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Helping Young Dreams Take Flight
Sep 20, 2006 5:07 pm US/Pacific
Over the chatter and laughter of dozens of children in Berkeley's Habitot Children's Museum, founder Gina Moreland is watching a preschooler shrug into a silver coat emblazoned with the NASA logo.
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Small Operation, Big Impact
Sep 13, 2006 7:14 pm US/Pacific
In a kitchen barely big enough for the two of them, Meilanny Haney and Deloris Vaughn frequently prepare enough food to feed about a hundred people. "She'll take about fifty dollars out of her check, I'll take about fifty out my check," explains Deloris.  
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Guiding Girls to Great Success
Sep 6, 2006 10:24 am US/Pacific
Tory Wilson becomes a freshman at Clark Atlanta University this semester. It's a long way from her home in East Oakland, and a special group of women she credits with helping her get there.  "They empowered me," she explains.
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