Sedona AZ (September 12, 2016) – The Arizona Community Foundation of Sedona invites community members to celebrate recipients of the 16th Annual Spirit of Sedona Awards on Thursday, September 29, at 5:00 p.m. at the Hilton Sedona Resort, Village of Oak Creek, Sedona.
The Spirit of Sedona event is a special evening where ACF of Sedona pays tribute to the exceptional contributions of local people and organizations that are dedicated to improving Sedona and the Verde Valley.
Sedona Heritage Museum offers digitized photos of days gone by and its nonprofit work to preserve local history and artifacts earns it a 2016 Spirit of Sedona award.
This year’s honorees include the Sedona Historical Society, which will be honored as the Nonprofit Organization of the Year. Perhaps best known for operating the Sedona Heritage Museum, the historical society welcomes more than 10,000 visitors annually for events and exhibitions that focus on historical aspects of life in Sedona and Oak Creek.
The recipient of the Philanthropist of the Year Award will be Barbara Vickers, who created the Sedona Wish List as her personal, charitable, part-time, retirement project.
Inspired by the rugged beauty of red rock country, Pink Jeep Tours began offering their off-road and formal tours of Sedona and surrounding areas in 1960. Well-known in tourism, their quiet philanthropy and involvement in the community may be less well known. Deservedly, Pink Jeep Tours will be honored as the Business Benefactor of the Year.
This year’s Volunteer of the Year will be Doug Copp, a long-time resident known for his quiet efforts to make this a better place to live. Lauded by his nominator, Doug is said to have his imprint on “essentially anything and everything that is associated with bicycles in Sedona.”
Having been awarded only twice before, the Community Collaborator Award will go to the Sedona Public Library this year. Far more than a place to read magazines and check out books, the Sedona Public Library collaborates with so many area nonprofits that listing them all would be impossible.
Spirit of Sedona’s signature award this year is also not always given; however, when there is a force of nature like Millicent “Mille” Leenhouts, the Lifetime Achievement Award is a solid fit. A longtime resident, Millicent moved here with her husband Tom when he relocated his ophthalmology practice to Sedona. Their mutual love of the arts has kept her involved with the Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Sedona and many, many other nonprofit organizations. She is especially proud to have worked as a board member for the Benefactors of the Red Rock State Park, and was a founding member of the advisory board for ACF of Sedona.
Thanks to the generosity of local donors, ACF of Sedona awarded more than $183,000 in grants this year to 43 nonprofit organizations serving Sedona and Verde Valley in the areas of arts and culture, animal welfare, environment and sustainability, community improvement, tolerance and diversity, social services, children, healthcare, and senior citizens and the disabled. Spirit of Sedona will be a chance to recognize these worthy organizations, who were selected by members of the ACF of Sedona Board of Advisors in collaboration with community members to ensure funds are distributed in alignment with the community’s greatest needs. These nonprofits are listed below:
ANIMAL WELFARE
1. Red Rose Inspiration for Animals
2. Runnin W Wildlife Center
3. Verde Valley Humane Society
ARTS & CULTURE
4. Red Earth Theatre
5. Sedona Arts Center
6. Sedona Arts Festival
7. Sedona International Film Festival
8. Verde Valley Sinfonietta
CHILDREN
9. American Red Cross
10. CASA Children’s Center
11. Gardens for Humanity
12. Girls on the Run
13. RENEW
14. Running River School
15. Teen Lifeline
16. Yavapai Big Brothers Big Sisters
COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT
17. Jewish Community of Sedona
18. Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
19. Arizona Wilderness Coalition
20. Benefactors of Red Rock State Park
21. Oak Creek Watershed Council
22. Sedona Historical Society
23. Sedona Recycles
24. Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund
HEALTHCARE
25. Alzheimer’s Association-Desert Southwest Chapter
26. Mentally Ill Kids In Distress
27. Northland Cares
SENIORS & INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
28. Adult Community Center of Sedona
29. Rainbow Acres
30. Senior Citizens of Camp Verde
31. The Giving Angels
32. Verde Valley Caregivers Coalition
SOCIAL SERVICES
33. ABIDE Maternity Home
34. Bread of Life Missions
35. Catholic Charities Community Services
36. Cornucopia Community Advocates
37. Old Town Mission
38. Sedona Community Food Bank
39. Steps to Recovery Homes
40. Trauma Intervention Programs
41. Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office
42. Yavapai Food Council
TOLERANCE & DIVERSITY
43. Northern Area Restorative Justice
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
44. 2016 Healthy Challenge Initiative (a funding collaboration with ACF of Sedona, Northern Arizona Health Foundation and Delta Dental Foundation of Arizona) – Red Earth Theatre, The Mouth Project
45. 2016 Education Initiative – Rotary Club of Sedona, Imagination Library
46. 2017 Education Initiative – Verde Valley School Summer College Preparation Program
BMO Harris Bank is the presenting sponsor of the 16th Annual Spirit of Sedona, which is open to the public, but space is limited. Community members are invited to reserve a seat online at Sedonaspirit2016.eventbrite.com. Tickets are $75 per person or $750 for a table of ten. For more information, contact Tracey McConnell at tmcconnell@azfoundation.org, or call 928-399-7218.
The Arizona Community Foundation of Sedona is a permanent philanthropic endowment for the enduring benefit of the community, securing, managing and allocating donors’ gifts for charitable purposes in the Sedona area. This family of charitable funds is guided by a local Board of Advisors and benefits from cost-efficient, centralized professional services provided by the Arizona Community Foundation. Founded in 1978, the Arizona Community Foundation is a statewide philanthropy with regional offices serving communities across Arizona. Last year, Arizona Community Foundation granted more than $46 million to more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations, schools and government agencies.
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Why stop there, you can single highhandedly collapse the city, then yavipai county and then the state. I hope you do, with the allowance of vacation rentals I think that those knob heads in our state capital are one step ahead of you.
@Richard Sanders. Aka Tony T
You just proved my point……..you are a very sick small minded person……
Pray tell WSR,
Why is publishing copies of of government employee’s emails written on a government account “sick and small minded”?
Should not a government employee be held to a higher standard? I’m sure you have you signed an agreement to not misuse government accounts and that they are subject to inspection and review?
Or did you just hope to lose the emails after requesting they be deleted after 60 days like Hillary Clinton?
Perhaps you should be more careful what you confide to someone before you terminate them. Oh, and phone in your appearance at the termination hearing.
Nothing sent on the internet EVER disappears. I’ll make you a deal though, if you admit who you are on the Sedona Eye and by phone to the editor, I won’t reinstate your most embarrassing emails website. Deal?
(Deleted by editor)
You are weak willed and small minded…..you should really stop using Ben Franklins pen name…..
Is that what you want to do beat up on a girl……your sick…
BTW. Why would someone like you buy the worst house on the block with no garage or carport….your place looks like a rundown used carlot……DUH…..pretty smart genius….
Beat up on a girl? Girls are supposed to be sugar and spice and everything nice. You hardly qualify.
I’m sure (deleted by editor) twice, or is it three times?
Does your (deleted by editor)? Did you know (deleted by editor) than the City of Sedona website? If (deleted by editor) is the only one in town.
I’d really rather just forget someone like you ever existed. Your personal attacks on others are a constant reminder that further damage by you should be minimalized.
In my day flyers were popular. How about a flyer (deleted by editor)?
I know civility eludes you. I’ll take another attack as agreement.
As you wish.
We live on a blue planet that circles around a ball of fire next to a moon that moves the sea, and you don’t believe in Miracles?
@Dick Saunders
Did you say something …..you got bleeped so much have no idea what your talking about…….actually without getting bleeped nobody knows what your talking about anyway
@WSR
Interesting that you would denigrate Richard Saunders for editor deletes when your potty-mouthed wife, Wsr, can’t write a full sentence without her foul-mouthed language resulting in massive editor deletes. But, nevertheless, foul language is always the hallmark of a low IQ.