serves remember her fondly and all that she did for them. she offered her talents to powwows, food booths, graduations and dinners and let's watch a video on gwen stirrer. >> i am [inaudible] known as the keepers of the western door. they're on the western side of new york and they're the biggest of the tribes. i'm the one -- i'm the one that creeks that runs through our reservation now. indian community -- there was nothing in the beginning. for 20 years that i work in the school district helping the children understand that their heritage was important, and important to be proud of being

indian, and so that gave them reasons to study harder and to be a better student and stay in school. where you come from is important and what your background is and your family, so we have to have indian education. i don't think i'm a hero. i just had a job to do, and did it with the children at the school district, but i also like to include the whole community. that's why we put on the powwows and have different events where everyone could attend. be proud that you're indian. >> so we would like to present gwen with this local hero's award from kqmd. thank you very much for what you have done for the community, for yourself and

the community and all the relations and gwen is going to be saying a few words. we're going to present her with this bag here and thank you. >> why thank you michael. it's very nice to hear the good words about me, and my son even has flowers i see. thank you very much tom. i have three sons. tom and middle son and he has a son also named tom but he is here today from palm springs. you live in palm springs tom? >> all over. >> all over. and thank you and i would like to thank my other friends. i saw so many of them here tonight and it's really nice that you came for our -- not just my friends but the friends of anacita and the others. thank you for coming.

i also really think that we should thank kqmd. who else shows indian movies and honors indian people like tonight? this is a great, great honor to be here in city hall of san francisco. the person that nominated me for this award is laverne roberts. maybe some of you knew her as laverne morrisy. she went home to her reservation. she is piute and went to her home. where is her home? >> [inaudible] >> in earring ton nevada. we went there once and she has a beautiful house and live there is and now she is even running for the council of her tribe.

laverne was going to surprise me and be here this evening, but she had an outbreak of one of her illnesses. her foot started to bleed and now she has to be on crutches for a while, so she had to turn in her plane ticket and her taxi fare, but otherwise she would have been here tonight and many of us know laverne and we would like to say a prayer that she gets better soon and can come and see us. this is for laverne. yes. please let's clap our hands for laverne. [applause] >> thank you. laverne roberts was honored here in this space

two years ago. thank you laverne. and i think i can say a lot more about being indian and how much i am proud to be indian. i did work in the school district for more than 20 years, and the people that i work with they still call me up and tell me their troubles, and ask for help sometimes, but thank you very much for all of you to come tonight. [applause] >> all right. thank you gwen and anaciata as well. i saw your family over there and got a bunch of hugs. all right. is

shirley here yet? is shirley cavara here yet? good to see you shirley. calling to the stage at this time amanda bloom. [applause] >> it's a great honor for me to introduce shirley. for any of you that know shirley. whatever shirley wants she gets so she said i had to introduce her and here i am. sheerly is amazing woman and was at alcatraz and taught children and supported me as a single mother, took care of my child there and i think she's one of the amazing woman in the communiand ths is er le for her

congratulations shirley. [applause] so now we're going to -- now we're going to have a video. >> my name is shirley cavara and work for oakland school district and early education and people come from san joaquin valley and my family is located in the area. the best thing about working here is meeting all the families, and connecting with the kids, and when it finally clicks to them "oh that's what that means". even if it's small steps with some kids it's a great feeling that you have made an accomplishment in their lives that they will remember, so here it started

down at ice age and moved to second avenue because it got too big want there was a preschool there and out grew that area and we had three choice in oakland to have the child care center at and the parents chose this one and up in the hills and don't feel like you're in oakland and conducive to our setting and lifestyle as indian people, and a lot of our kids that graduated here are doing community work. they're out there working with their people so we have made a strong impact with kids and you don't think about it. you just do what you do and what comes natural in working with kids and it's the only -- within the state of california the only urban american indian child development center. that it ldn't have happened unless

involved the community and the staff and people that trurl cared to keep it going. >> one of the things i forgot to say there was a time when it was in danger of being closed and shirley lead the efforts to keep it open. [applause] >> oh wow thank you guys for this honor. we have been there for a long time and we were in the process of losing it for a while but the community came together and it's not about me or karen or the people being honored and it takes a community and that phrase "it takes a village to raise a child". it truly does and takes everyone of us and people in the community, our education community, our native american health center community, our crc community

because once they leave us then somebody else has to pick up where we left off and carry that ball to educate the students and i see the students and it's good to see you guys and i thank you for being here and honor all of us, and keep your prayers open for hinttelethat it will always be there. if i can hang in for a couple more years i hope to retire. knock on wood. thanks for being here and each of you drive safely and thank you for your prayers and blessings and those that come before us and those coming into the world. hi pop. [applause]

>> shirley, shirley. >> all my x's kids of taught by shirley. i'm kidding. and again with great pleasure welcome janet king to the stage. [applause] >> hello everybody. i have the great honor and privilege to introduce and to introduce karen harrison who is also receiving this award tonight. karen harrison is a registered nurse and clinic manager at the

native american indian center in oakland and a member from a tribe here in california. she started out as a medical assistant in 1985 with the native american health center and went on to get her registered nurse degree so she's been with the health center for 27 years and 21 of those years she has been a registered nurse. [applause] karen has greatly contributed to the native american health center and sharing her knowledge and wisdom with the whole agency and this goes out to the community as well and serves as a chair on the advisory community and board member of the friendship house and

coached american indian children in the tribal athletics program and known as the coworkers as the patient whisperer and when there is a patient that is angry or agitated she is always successful in calming them down. she is a mother and her with her family tonight. can all her kids wave? and she is here with her sister and lots of friends and now we're going to see a video about her. >> i am karen harrison. i'm the nurse manager at the native american health center and got into it as being a caretaker and grew up in a lot of pain and suffering because of who we are, where we come from, and so early on there needed to be caretaker caretakers. i think what we

always needed in the communicate. >> >> and work is -- >> and community and work and mentoring somebody behind us and finding the young people that will be the up and coming leaders. it's hard to think of myself as a leader in the community because i am taught not to think about myself or brag about myself except in prayer. we pray for ourselves to first so we can be stronger to pull other people up, but to pay attention to myself goes against the way i was taught growing up. we don't brag about it. we just do it and that's our job and just do it. it's important to always do community work because we are teaching somebody without knowing and somebody is watching us and it keeps our community strong. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you everybody. i made myself cry again just watching it, but thank kqmd and as i said in the video here it was really hard for me to accept this because i don't think myself and martha did convincing and remember there is always somebody watching. somebody young or old is watching and we have to carry ourselves in a good way because maybe somebody wants to be like us one day. i thank my co-workers for coming. i gave this little speech a couple weeks ago and broke down crying and i said two weeks ago those are my heroes. anybody that can choose to work in health care servicing the people you guys

are my heroes. shirley is my hero. she is servicing people and i think that is my message. anybody that chooses to serve people you're awesome. you're all my heroes, and i think i just want to leave a quick little word of what a uncle told me this year is "what -- actually "what is hard is told us to go out everyday and live a beautiful life" and i think if we can do that it's a good world. it's a good thing. so thank you and i thank my family for dancing. that was awesome for me to see. thank you for coming out. thank you lisa for driving all that way and my co-workers -- like i said you're all my heroes and we came

straight from work. [applause] >> one of the first times that the harrison family made it to city hall and they're not paying a parking ticket. once again congratulations to anacita, gwen, shirley, and karen. can we have all the other recipients of this pres tangibleious award -- please stand if you're able. okay. don't be shy gosh. again how about a big round of applause for all these standing.

[applause] one of the greatest awards is to be honored by your community, by your own people, so again my hats off to all the recipients for this year. we give thanks to the native american aids proyektd, the mayor's office office of services, each bay health center, aqmd, the health center of santa clara valley and once again we applaud you and we thank you. [applause] going back over to our singers. smoky bay, two starts and a

song -- one of your favorites and napsters two starts as well. dancers, do you want to come in? all right. here we go. make them dance. (drums).

>> good singing. good dancing. here we go. rocking san francisco city hall. good dancing. all right. (drums).

napsters take it away. two starts. all right. we would

like to get the honorees. if the honorees could come up here by the first step. napsters if you could take care of this honoring song. here we go. (drums and chanting).

all right. how about a big round of applause for all our honorees. thank you dancers. thank you singers. that concludes our program.@@to th awards here at san francisco city hall. thank you all so much for joining us here tonight. it is an honor to be here. my name is daniel homsby and i am the program manager for the neighborhood department networks. an honor to see you here.

many of the same faces for the fifth year for the men awards. let's give you an a plays for coming back. (applause) >> and celebrating one of the most important th whave in san francisco, which is our ighborods. without further ado, i'd like to start the program off by introducing my colleague, christina palone, the new director for the mayor's office for neighborhoods. christina palone. (applause) >> good evening, everyone. i'm happy to be a part of such a great ebit that celebrates the contributions made by residents and organizations throughout the city to make san francisco one of the greatest places to live. the mayor's office of neighborhood services also known as mons focuses on neighborhood outreach and engagement. it is an honor to be here with community leaders who are dedicated to the same principles and are positively changing our communities. the effect that one person can have in a community is truly inspiring. and it's that inspiration that drives each one of us to go out

there and be a part of something bigger. i congratulate every award winner here tonight and let's not forget that every person here has the power to make a difference. i want to especially thank daniel and his team for being such instrumental leaders here in city hall on behalf of all communities and neighborhoods in san francisco. with that said, welcome and enjoy tonight's event. (applause) >> thank you, christina. so, before we jump into the fire works, as you would say, let's take a few seconds here and just go over some of the elements of tonight's event. so, tonight we're going to be giving out 12 awards. for those of you that came to the first nen awards, you recall it finished about an hour ago. so, we've modified the format in the last two years. so, tonight what will happen is that tonight we will hear from the people that nominated the

winners who will dive deep into talking about thighs illustrious individuals and organizations. and the individuals will receive the award. now, tonight the people that will be making remarks from this podium will be the people receiving the hall of fame award and the lifetime achievement award. the balance of the individuals and organizations that will receive awards are going to be interviewed by our nen tv film crew in the north court during the reception. you can watch the interviews and how their feelings of joy and passion about receiving the awards and we will post all of them on the internet as well as hopefully make them available on s.f. government tv. you will have a chance to hear from the wins wynners. we're going to try to consolidate the program and do the second half in the reception. which brings up the fact once again we have the amazing st. john event doing our food in the north light court. so, at the conclusion of this evening's event we ask you all join us in the north light

court to enjoy a wonderful selection of food and wine and drinks. i'd also like to take a moment, of course, and thank mayor lee for once again extending the invitation to host the event here as well at city hall as well as our new city administrator naomi kelly who will be making remarks here promptly in a little bit. and thank them for their generous hospitality not only 230er this event but for this program because without their leadership and support the neighborhood department network would not exist. i'd also like to thank the folks at the city hall events team who every year make this event come together and make it a success. in addition, i'd like to also thank our sponsors. * once again, pg&e the fifth year in a row stepped up and become a major sponsor here for the neighborhood empowerment network. we have two new event sponsors this year. we have next door, which is a new online program here in san francisco, new neighborhood service which many of people in this room are using. you'll have more chance to hear from this if you advise the the life night court event.

sterling bank, one of the great local banks we have here in san francisco. without further ado we'd like to begin tonight's program and we're going to start off with a message from mayor ed lee. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome to the fifth annual neighborhood empowerment network awards. while i'm unable to attend this year's event, i want to express my deep appreciation to tonight's award recipients for the extraordinary work and service that they provide to our cities, neighborhoods every day. all of the award recipients share one common goal. and that is to ensure that san francisco continues to be the best place to live, visit, and do business. i am proud to be the mayor of a city where residents and civic leaders are partners and work together to tackle challenges and find innovative solutions to keep our neighborhoods world class. thank you for attending this important event, and thank you to the neighborhood empowerment

network for your dedication and commitment to our neighborhoods. keep up the great work and have a wonderful evening here at the nen awards. (applause) >> the first award we're going to be presenting tonight is an award that for many people is an award that is one of the top highlights of the event, and that is an opportunity to induct someone into the nen hall of fame. the hall of fame is an opportunity to take a moment and celebrate the lifetime of the contribution that an individual has made to our city and perhaps just seize the opportunity perhaps if they haven't been highlight and had elevated for that contribution here in city hall in the rotunda to do so. this year's nen hall of fame