Awards

Persons of the Year

Susan True
Susan True is the Chief Executive Officer of the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County. In her role, Susan continues her lifelong commitment to work that improves lives and strengthens communities. No one would have predicted that the Community Foundation would be asked to be a convener for economic recovery in Santa Cruz County. Once again, under Susan’s leadership, she worked diligently with her board and community partners to establish the Economic Recovery Council. Working outside the lines to help the community fight the virus, keeping people safe with social distancing messaging, responding to the wildfires with grants and resources. Seeking partnership with the public, business and non-profit sectors to come together as one. In addition, with help from the Economic Recovery Council (ERC), Susan and the Community Foundation:
  • Launched the COVID-19 Local Response Fund - currently $11.1M awarded;
  • Launched the Fire Response Fund - currently $776,000 awarded; and
  • Stepped up to help out financially in areas that are outside of their traditional mission, because the community needed it in response to the pandemic and fires.
  • The Community Foundation has collaborated with the Chambers, other business associations and non-profit organizations throughout Santa Cruz County to be a COVID-19 resource for the region.

Chief Deputy, Chris Clark
Chris Clark is the Chief Deputy of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department. As the Chief Deputy, Chris Clark is responsible for managing the Patrol Division’s mandate to provide continuous first responder 9-1-1 services, non-emergency service, and general law enforcement in the unincorporated area of the County. The Sheriff’s office receives nearly 95,000 calls for service each year, with the majority of those calls handled by the Patrol Division. No one could have imagined the dynamic need for 9-1-1 services that followed the lightning strikes in August 2020 that led to the devastating CZU Lighting Complex Wildfires that destroyed property and our precious Santa Cruz Mountains. Chief Deputy Clark:
  • Led house-to-house property protection against the wildfires in the San Lorenzo Valley and along the north coast;
  • Led contact for County Sheriff in coordinating County’s response to the wildfires;
  • Handled the twice-daily press conferences during early hectic days of the wildfire, providing information to calm the fears of homeowners and residents of the wildfire zone;
  • Provided support and guidance to clear roadways so firefighters would focus on their jobs -- putting out fires;
  • Made arrests in the wildfire zone to ensure protection of homeowners’ property; and
  • Used social media communication resources to provide information to displaced homeowners.

Fire Chief, Ian Larkin
Ian Larkin is the Fire Chief, CalFire of San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties. Chief Larkin was born and raised in Watsonville, CA and now makes his home in Scotts Valley, CA with his wife and two daughters.
He has served with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for 28 years. Chief Larkin began his fire service career in 1988, as a Paid Call Firefighter with the Salsipudes Fire Protection District in Santa Cruz County and began his professional career as a Firefighter I with CAL FIRE in the San Mateo – Santa Cruz Unit (CZU) in July of 1990.
His most challenging moment came in 2020 nearly two decades later, as the lightning strike created thousands of fires throughout Northern California in August 2020. The CZU Lighting Complex Wildfire was the most devastating fire to hit San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties in our history. Making this fire even more challenging was the limited number of firefighters available due to the unfortunate fact that throughout California, the state was burning. Fire Chief Larkin displayed calm leadership working with the CalFire team and fire department personnel around the state and western region. Chief Larkin was the incident command leader of the CZU fire last year, leading CalFire in providing twice-daily press updates to the region.

Businesses of the Year

Dignity Health
Dignity Health/Dominican Hospital serves Santa Cruz County. Dignity Health is made up of more than 60,000 caregivers and staff who deliver excellent care to diverse communities in 21 states. Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health is the fifth largest health system in the nation and the largest hospital provider in California.
Dominican Hospital is the epicenter of COVID-19 services in Santa Cruz County.  When Dominican Hospital began providing the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in late December 2020, its initial focus was the vaccination of the hospital’s frontline clinical staff. The vaccine has now been offered to all hospital employees and affiliated physicians. To date, nearly 80 percent—more than 2,000 staff members in all—who wished to receive the COVID-19 vaccine have received it, with many already having been administered their second and final dose. More recently, in partnership with the County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency, Dominican opened up its vaccination clinics to frontline health care workers across the community including paramedics/EMTs, hospice workers, behavioral health and safety net clinic staff, mortuary services employees, and staff in local physician offices. All told, the hospital has delivered nearly 3,000 vaccinations into the arms of these essential workers. “Our health care team has faced months of unimaginable adversity and exhaustion,” said Dr. Nanette Mickiewicz, President of Dominican Hospital. “Yet, when asked to help get the COVID-19 vaccine to as many of their clinical colleagues in the community as possible, they didn’t think twice. They dug deep and responded with an enthusiasm I didn’t think was possible. I am humbled by their unbreakable spirits, I am impossibly proud of them, and I am honored to work alongside them.”

Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente serves Santa Cruz County with offices in Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Like the other health care providers in the region, they have stepped up to address the virus, implementing thousands of COVID-19 tests and now rolling out the vaccine to its patients and members.

Sutter Health
Sutter Health and Palo Alto Medical Foundation working together with local health providers and first responders offer 24/7 health services to their patients throughout the Santa Cruz County region. Sutter hospitals serve more of the Medi-Cal patient population in Northern California than any other health system.* They proudly fund and partner with community programs to help ensure those in need have access to care and social services.

Organization of the Year

Santa Cruz County Fair
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds/Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Foundation/Ag History Project:  Long ago, around 1885,  home-loving and farm-loving Santa Cruz County citizens combined their first efforts to produce what has become the Santa Cruz County Fair and Horse Show. This elaborate fair has been at its present location along Hecker Pass Road (the present East Lake Avenue) since 1941. The first agricultural county fair opened on October 16th in Folger's Skating Rink, near the plaza in the center of Watsonville. Over the stage, spelled out in letters formed of apples, was the sign "Pajaro Valley Products.” These days, in addition to providing endless amounts of family fun, during almost every nationally declared disaster, the Fairgrounds have become the county’s safe place for people, animals and community services. 2020 stretched the County Fairgrounds staff and all-volunteer foundation board to new levels of community engagement. During times of need, the Fairgrounds becomes a hub of services for everything from wildfire evacuees and their farm animals to providing a one-stop place for COVID-19 testing, to a vaccination clinic. In addition, Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds:
  • Supported drive-through food bank distribution to 1,500-2,500 cars on a biweekly basis (every other Friday);
  • Along with the Ag History Project, teamed up with Fairgrounds to create Holiday Lights, bringing drive-through cheer to almost 13,000 carloads of people;
  • Remains mostly volunteer-run with a very small staff;
  • Resident family, the Kegebeins -- Dave (Fair Manager) & Woody (his wife) and John Kegebien (Dave’s dad) & Jeannie (his wife) –have spent day and night at the fairgrounds along with other volunteers to ensure the evacuees were taken care of;
  • Currently serves as a drive-through vaccine location for the County, with also offering shelter to another round of evacuees due to winter storms.

Lifetime (Legacy) Award

Gail Pellerin
Gail Pellerin, retired Santa Cruz County Clerk and Elections Officer.
 It’s always best to go out on top. The announcement last November that Santa Cruz County Clerk and elections chief Gail Pellerin was retiring after a distinguished 30-year career is deserving of a lifetime achievement award.  A story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel captured the tenacity and fairness that Gail has displayed throughout her career.
There was the concern about a compromised election during a pandemic and the subsequent disasters that the 2020 election seemed to portend.
However, Pellerin and her team of poll workers and ballot counters deserve much of the credit, along with the tens of thousands of voters who exercised their democratic rights: That Santa Cruz County again was an outpost of election integrity and access is a testament to Pellerin’s out-front leadership. And her department and team carried out these responsibilities with nary a note of controversy or fraud, in an election amid a pandemic and a chaotic storm cloud of anger and distrust from a large swath of the electorate. The turnout for the Nov. 3rd election was nothing short of phenomenal, with 143,814 total votes cast as of Nov. 13th. That means 84.34% of the 170,514 registered voters in this county voted. Moreover, 132,339, or 77.6%, cast their votes by mail, either sent in through the U.S. Postal Service, or dropped off in one of the many ballot boxes placed around the county. Only 11,475, or 6.7%, of voters did so in person. One person doesn’t run a county election system alone, but one person does lead with compassion and fairness that every vote counts. Gail Pellerin did the hard work that made each election run smoothly year after year.
Previous Award Winners