On Valentine’s Day, The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation celebrated the 2018 HALO Award recipients with a luncheon at the beautiful Marion Davies Guest House in Santa Monica. It was a perfect day to honor the love, dedication and hearts of the volunteer awardees, while also welcoming 7 new organizations to the HALO Award family including: A Place Called Home, EnCorps, Inc., Food on Foot, Learning Rights Law Center, Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation, Operation Jump Start, and People Organized For Westside Renewal.
2018 Volunteer Nominees
The Foundation was honored to have Nike Irvin as the event’s keynote speaker. Nike is a 22-year veteran of nonprofit leadership who served as Vice President of Programs at the California Community Foundation and President of The Riordan Foundation and currently sits in the several nonprofit boards, including Southern California Grantmakers. Joined by her mother, Nike lifted volunteerism by sharing her personal journey of service, filled with anecdotes about love, commitment to family and community, and finding purpose.
Keynote Speaker: Nike Irvin, Founder of ZWN, Inc.
Other Luncheon guests included the 2018 Selection Committee, Mayor Garcetti’s Office of Volunteer Engagement, the Blue Garnet capacity building team, and HALO Award alumni, Gabe Middleton and Carmen McDonald, who later served on an alumni panel during the afternoon Orientation for the new cohort.
From left: Patrick Conyers, Executive Director of Pasadena Education Foundation & 2017 HALO Award Winner; Gabe Middleton, CEO of human-I-T & 2016 HALO Award Winner; Chris Henrikson, Board Member of Street Poets; Kara Soldati, President & CEO of United Friends of the Children; Carrie Harlow, Program Officer at The Ahmanson Foundation; Kristina Deutsch, Trustee at The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation
Not pictured: Dorothy Fleischer, Program Director at the W.M. Keck Foundation
Orientation Alumni Panel
From left: Gabe Middleton, CEO of human-I-T & 2016 HALO Award Winner; Carmen McDonald, Director of Legal Services at Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice & 2017 HALO Award Winner
Despite the heavy rains outside, warmth and love permeated the room for what is always a favorite day of the year for the Foundation. We can’t wait to get started with Cohort 8!
