It’s time to nominate the Valley’s top volunteers for the 2025 Fernando Award
The Fernando Award Foundation is accepting nominations for its Fernando Award that goes to an individual who has a lifetime of civic leadership, philanthropy and volunteer work that has changed the San Fernando Valley community for the better and who has inspired others to follow their lead in volunteering.
The nomination deadline is noon July 28, and nominations are only accepted through the foundation’s website. Guidelines for nominating and the application form are found at fernandoawards.org/award-nominations.
“What sets the annual Fernando Award apart from other Valley awards programs is its unique history of recognizing lifetime achievement in community service,” wrote Fernando Award Foundation Nominations and Selection Committee Chair Lee Alpert, in a press release.
Alpert said, “Since its inception in 1958, the Fernando Award is considered the highest recognition in the San Fernando Valley for community volunteerism. In any given year in the San Fernando Valley, there are many generous and committed people helping to make the Valley a better place. However, the Fernando Award is given to an individual not just for a year of service, however remarkable, or even ten years, but rather for a lifetime of service.”
The 2024 Fernando Award went to Susan Du Brin, who helped organize blood drives and speaker series for seniors on health-related topics, worked with the Child Development Institute to address the medical needs of children, volunteered at Alzheimer’s Association and Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, and led a project with Encino Chamber of Commerce and ONEgeneration to create a pioneering directory of senior services in the Valley.
The next Fernando Award recipient will be announced at the 67th Fernando Foundation gala reception and dinner on Nov. 7 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
This year’s Fernando Nominations and Selection Committee — Alpert, Zev Ashkenazi, Zedar Broadus, Mark Levinson, and Christy Vega — will consider a nominee’s volunteer service, leadership in community organizations or nonprofits, and record of attracting or contributing to, financial support and recruiting volunteers to nonprofit organizations.
For questions about the nomination process, send an email to Alpert: lka@alpertdrc.com
The nominee list will be pared down to five finalists by the committee. And in late August, all nominees, board members, past recipients and sponsors of the 2025 award are invited to a hosted reception where five finalists will be announced.
Ballots to vote for the 2025 Fernando Award recipient are sent by email to all eligible voters, who include past recipients, current Fernando Foundation board members, community partners, and patrons and benefactors of the gala award dinner.
The first recipient of the Fernando Award, in 1959, was businessman Martin Pollard who owned Casa de Cadillac in Sherman Oaks and was active in the Valley community, including serving as president of Valley Presbyterian Hospital, president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce, and first chairman of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Since the beginning of the Fernando Award, close to 700 nominees have been recognized, and more than 60 community and business leaders have been selected. Names of award recipients are engraved on the Fernando statue monument at the Van Nuys Civic Center, and also on a marble obelisk in Warner Park at 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd.