Four Palisadians Will Be Honored During the Annual Holiday Dinner & Awards Gala on December 12
By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
Pacific Palisades Community Council has announced its four award winners for 2024 during the Thursday, November 14, board meeting.
Cindi Young has been named Citizen of the Year, while Leslie Campbell and Carlos Rodriguez are this year’s Golden Sparkplugs. Pride of the Palisades—a discretionary distinction that is bestowed in “exceptional circumstances,” determined by the Awards Selection Committee—is Thomas Hathaway.
“We salute Cindi, Leslie, Carlos and Thomas for their amazing contributions to the Palisades community,” PPCC wrote in a statement.
Citizen of the Year honors “long-term, steady, reliable and continuing outstanding” volunteer service, as well as a recent “extraordinary” accomplishment by an individual that resulted in a “substantial” benefit to the Palisades community.
Young has been given the award for “selflessly volunteering to continue the mission of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness,” according to PPCC.
“She stepped up to take on the extensive duties required of the co-president as of January 1 when no one else was willing to volunteer,” the statement continued, “thus rescuing this esteemed organization, which has been so critical to ensuring the safety of the Palisades community and which would have otherwise ceased to exist.”
Young has dedicated “countless hours” to area volunteer efforts, including as a former president of the Castellammare Mesa HOA, PPCC Area 1 1st alternate and representative of PPCC on the Westside Regional Alliance of Council Homelessness Committee.
Her team includes current PPTFH Co-President Carmen Kallberg (her nominator), as well as past Co-Presidents Sharon Browning and Sharon Kilbride, fundraising director Carol Sanborn, and volunteer director Kim Clary.
“Cindi is truly a community hero for saving PPTFH and for all her volunteer efforts,” read the statement. “She well deserves Citizen of the Year honors.”
Golden Sparkplug awards honor citizens who have ignited original ideas and projects that have benefited Palisadians. The project must have been initiated, in progress or completed during the current or prior calendar year.
Campbell has earned her Golden Sparkplug honors for her “tireless, sustained advocacy and leadership” working to “create and secure a much-needed dog park in Pacific Palisades.”
“She devoted many hours of work over the course of 10 years toward realizing this worthy goal, starting with efforts to explore obtaining a dog park in 2014, when she learned that a prior effort in the Palisades had failed,” according to PPCC. “Undeterred, she continued relentlessly lobbying government officials and agencies, eventually obtaining the support of Councilwoman Traci Park.”
Now a member of the Pacific Palisades Dog Park Working Group—alongside Lynn Miller and Carol Ross—the park has secured Measure A funding and is now in the midst of community meetings ahead of its completion on Temescal Canyon Road.
“The Palisades community is now assured that the dog park will move forward toward completion in the required city process,” the statement read. “We are indebted to Leslie for her relentless and successful volunteer efforts to realize the long-wished-for Palisades dog park.”
Fellow Golden Sparkplug Rodriguez has been honored for his “extensive volunteer work” with PPTFH, including clearing “hundreds of abandoned encampments and safeguarding the bluff and canyon areas.” He has been volunteering with PPTFH since 2017, including working closely with Bruce Schwartz, Sue Pascoe and Kilbride.
“This year, Carlos was called on to clear a large, abandoned campsite in the El Medio hillside, hauling away all the rubbish to prevent fires and making sure no other unhoused individuals would set up camps in the wilderness near homes and Temescal Gateway Park,” according to PPCC. “He also cleaned up several campsites in the Via de las Olas bluffs, where previous fires had been set, using his own personal truck to haul away debris.”
Rodriguez also replaced broken and damaged “high fire severity” signs in the hillside areas on his own initiative this year.
“Carlos’ volunteer efforts have kept the community safe from fires and our environment pristine,” PPCC wrote. “This recognition is long overdue for his tremendous work as a true community steward of our hillsides.”
Hathaway is being recognized as Pride of the Palisades for his “extraordinary work” for over 10 years as CFO and director of the Palisades Will Rogers 5 & 10K Run Foundation and principal organizer of the Fourth of July race.
“Thomas has devoted countless volunteer hours over the past 13 years to the success of the run, in which 3,000 runners/walkers participate annually,” PPCC described.
Starting on July 5, Hathaway—assisted over the years by Jimmy Klein and Mike Solum—spends five to 10 hours per week closing that year’s event, preparing for the next year, which includes securing sponsorships, completing financial arrangements, paying bills, obtaining city permissions and more over the course of several months. Then, beginning in March, Hathaway dedicates 15 to 25 hours each week finalizing plans and permits for each race.
“Thomas is an unsung hero of the Palisades community for his amazing volunteer efforts to produce the successful Will Rogers 5K/10K Run, year after year, on the Fourth of July,” PPCC wrote. “Pride of the Palisades honors are not awarded every year. It takes a special person like Thomas to earn this special recognition.”
The Awards Selection Committee—with Committee Chair Quentin Fleming, Kilbride, Karen Ridgley, JoAnna Rodriguez and Chris Spitz—considered “the many nominations received” to finalize the list.
All of the winners will be honored during the annual PPCC Holiday Dinner & Awards Gala, which will take place at Casa Nostra Ristorante in The Highlands on Thursday, December 12, beginning at 6 p.m.
The evening will begin with “a glass of bubbly and short meet and greet,” followed by a four-course dinner with a choice of entree and complimentary wine. There will be silent and live auctions, with “wonderful items” donated by area businesses, organizations and officials.
Tickets are now on sale for $125 per person. They will be available until December 6 or until sold out—whichever comes first.
For more information, including a link to purchase tickets, visit pacpalicc.org.
