The 53rd annual Les Tupper Community Service Awards will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 10, at von Karman Auditorium at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Christie Clarkson, Sheri Morton and Victoria Schwartz will be honored with individual Community Service Awards; Kara Bradley and Shayna Goldstein are set to receive Student Service Awards; Janice SooHoo will be recognized with the Special Service Award and the Assistance League of Flintridge will receive the Organization Award.
The community is invited to attend as the La Cañada Flintridge Coordinating Council distributes the awards, which, since 1965, have recognized individuals and groups for their outstanding service to the community. Refreshments will follow the program.
Clarkson’s service has improved lives of the youth in LCF; she served as the La Cañada Elementary PTA president for two years, ran the “Snack Shack” for La Cañada High School football games, was LCHS PTSA president for two years and now is co-chair of the Home Tour.
She also is the president-elect of the Glendale/LCF chapter of National Charity League and has volunteered at Ascencia, 12 Oaks Lodge and the Glendale YWCA.
Also a co-leader of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop for eight years, Clarkson coached the 6-and-under Pixie and 8-and-under Gold Tournament softball teams.
Morton, an English teacher for 30 years, started in 1990 as a charter member of Cañada Auxiliary of Professionals, an auxiliary of the Assistance League of Flintridge. She was chair of many committees before becoming the group’s president. She joined the Thursday Club when her daughter became a debutante and to honor her mother, a member of the club years earlier. Morton now is the club’s president.
A deacon at La Cañada Presbyterian Church, Morton served on the church’s Senior Ministry Task Force developing a Senior Resources Guidebook and also has been in charge of the Red Cross blood drive. For 10 years, she has cooked for more than 100 retired members at the semi-annual Anchor luncheon.
She spearheaded LCHS’s 50th anniversary festivities at Memorial Park in 2013.
Schwartz, an attorney, was a member of the La Cañada Educational Foundation Board of Directors from 2003-2006, chairing their successful annual gala, home tours, musical/jazz nights and a fashion show.
Her latest venture: Forming the La Cañada Flintridge Sister Cities Association. Working with the City Council and the Sister Cities International Office in Washington, D.C., she helped LCF establish a connection with the Spanish city of Villanueva de La Cañada.
Bradley, a senior at LCHS and a member of the National Honor Society and California Scholarship Federation, is co-president of fundraising and benefits of Teens for the Advancement of Children’s Hospital. She also has been involved with the National Charity League for six years, serving as president, vice-president and Ticktocker council representative.
Goldstein also is involved with TACH, serving as co-president of fundraising and benefits. She earned her Girl Scouts Gold Award by providing free, inclusive dance classes to more than 30 disabled and special needs children. She also started a Make-A-Wish Club at LCHS and has dedicated each of her birthday parties since age 12 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, raising more than $20,000.
SooHoo will receive the Special Service Award, which goes to honor individuals, organizations or businesses worthy of recognition who do not meet the broad-based volunteer requirements of the Community Service Award. For more than seven years, she has been involved in efforts to prevent the construction of the freeway tunnel linking the 710 Freeway with the 210 Freeway, organizing local workshops and keeping local leaders informed.
The Assistance League of Flintridge’s Bargain Box thrift shop — staffed by more than 100 members — funds its philanthropic programs, including the community summer school for grades 1-8 and instrumental music for grades 4-6, which was started in 1985. ALF’s retired service volunteer program involves almost 50 senior citizen volunteers who meet every Friday to assemble mailings and perform tasks for other community organizations.
