behalf of chief hayes white who could not be here tonight nert is a [speaker not understood] with the community of san francisco. the marina navy demanded training. 23 plus years later the fire department is still working with the community on this great program. we have great training and support for what you do in your neighborhood. the neighborhood that you live in, the earthquake knows no boundaries, the earthquake does not pay attention to that. we're all going to be in this together so getting to know who you are in the portola, getting to know who you know is critical. (applause) >> the critical piece to the nert program. and that happens through neighbors building their teams and building what is going to be the network that we have together. so, thank you to the battalion 2 chief. hilbtion hickey is here on the chief's behalf. nora is here today and donna is

going to tell you why. (applause) * >> good evening. my name is dianne rivera, and i have a cold. so, i hope you'll bear with me. i'm a member of the neighborhood emergency response team, and i am so pleased, as we all are, that nora has been chosen as the exemplary leader -- for receiving the exemplary leadership award for 2012. nora is a leader in her neighborhood and we all recognize her as a leader throughout the city. as a past coordinator nora has led her team in all aspects of nert training. nora does many other things for the nert program. she has organized youth groups, namely the red cross youth group, so they can act as victims during our triage drills. nora also participates in mini

drills, outreach tabling programs, and she does continuing training. when nora is not doing this, she's working in the nert office organizing volunteers. nora is our resident ar extraordinaer. and what do i mean by that? nora has the ability through use of makeup to create life-threatening wounds on the limbs of victims. [laughter] >> so that our graduating nert class 6 triage people can see what it might really look like during a real event. nora's goals are pretty self-evident. she would like everyone to take the nert program. we are so happy, nora, for you -- where are you? you are very deserving of this award. congratulations. (applause)

>> thank you so much. i really consider myself a student, and i have so many people that are part of the nert family that have taught me so much. and i invite all of you to become member of the nert family. and thank you again. (applause) ♪ >> to introduce our next award i would like to invite someone to the stage -- i have a cold, too, i apologize. [laughter] >> sneeze with my mouth moving. i want to invite someone who i think many people in this room

know who works behind the scenes here at city hall to actually create what i think are some of the most significant physical examples of neighborhood empowerment in the city. and that, of course, is lenny denriquez. i want to invite her up here. if you walk around and see an amazing mural or amazing garden, it's a good chance she's the one that said yes to that application. so, here we go, lenny. (applause) >> good evening. i'm up here because i nominated the progress park for the best ccg nen award. i'm proud to present this award on behalf of nen to bruce and bill for their hard work and dedication for turning this vacant lot, this eyesore in their community to a beautiful green park for everyone to enjoy. through their hard work and dedication and the support of their neighbors, they just

created something tremendously beautiful. it's just amazing. and i would like -- i'm honored and i would like to invite them up to receive their award. (applause) >> thank you. [laughter] >> i want to mention that we live in one of the newest neighborhoods in san francisco, brand-new -- well, ten-year-old buildings, condos, apartments, a bunch of people who don't have a history, don't have a neighborhood. just a bunch of strangers living in proximity. and we got this idea to convert

this derelict property, this derelict piece of weed infested lot under the caltrans on ramp. and all of a sudden we've got people showing up writing checks, digging weeds, breaking rocks. so, i got a real -- we got a real experience of what it means to be in a neighborhood because we took this -- we turned into a neighborhood. that's the power of that project. so, i never anticipated it would do that. (applause) >> thank you very much. >> i just wanted to make sure everyone understood where it's located. it's located in dogpatch, small neighborhood on the bay in san francisco. (applause) >> part of district 10, supervisor cohen's district. (applause) ♪

>> certainly i'm weeding in front of my house, wait for people to show up with check. [laughter] >> get redy for that, deposit with my phone tre nd hat i think, you know, ironically it's become one of those buzz awards for nen awards. i'll be walking down the street and have someone come up and get in my face, we're to come back neighborhood of the year, you watch. come back neighbor of the year, it's that bcs of the nen awards. and it's my honor to introduce someone who to drone deuce this award, many of you much in the southern part of the city especially have worked side by side with and do amazing things in your neighborhood, especially along merchant corridors. that's chrisy atano of the economic work force development. (applause) >> we're at the homestretch for

awards. so, i've had the distinct pleasure of being able to work with many of the residents of the portola and got corrected many times how to pronounce that name. so, i am also a resident of silver terrace. it's been such a pleasure to work with everyone in the committee including both of the supervisors that have been part of the district. (applause) >> supervisor campos and supervisor malia cohen. i'm not going to speak too much because i know the nominater took not only is she a part of this community, but she has taken the time to really outline all the achievements of the community. but i will say on behalf of my boss, amy cohen, the portola never had a drop down on the yelp. it never had a drop down on the cdbg grant application process. and they used to have t-shirts that said best little neighborhood you never knew. so, i'm going to bring up lindy

lynetsky from dpw. (applause) >> we stole all her lines already. >> yeah, stole all my lines. you just stole another. all right. tonight is called the portola sweep, right? [cheering and applauding] >> i know there are several people here tonight who nominated the portola as the come back neighborhood of the award of the year. neighborhood of the year award. i'm sure there were several nominaters. so, i'm very humble to be able to present my nomination and the reasons why i think we deserve tonight's award. i'm a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, only 13 years, and there are many more folks who have been there for their whole lifetime. several years ago as even chrisy talked about, i first saw the portola, because portola family connections who this year is celebrating their 20th anniversary serving the community. (applause)applied for a grant a

as chrisy mentioned, there was nowhere to check. you couldn't get a grant if your neighborhood didn't include it. think of it still very similar. if you look at a aaa map today or a city neighborhood map, you ain't gonna see the portola on it despite all of our victories tonight and all of our victories over the past years. this particular year has been very important to the portola. i think our biggest accomplishment was staying together. it was district -- redistricting and the government wanted to put some of us in one district and some of us in another district. and folks came out and they went to all those meetings and said, i don't care which district you put us in, but we want to stay together. the portola needs to be one. similarly, there was a road between two reservoirs in our neighborhood that was supposed to have been -- we opened after

construction and we were told no, we're going to keep it closed. and that would effectively have blocked one side of the neighborhood from the other and hundreds of people attended a community meeting and said, no, you keep that open because we can't to stay together. (applause) >> in addition -- this is definitely our year. we've won two community challenge grants. one of them was doing a beautiful mural of a stake on a caltrans -- it's the year of the snake, isn't it? of course we're going to win. (applause) >> the second is for a pocket park on boers at san bruno. it will be the first to be a pilot pocket park -- could say that several time, a pilot pocket park. [laughter] >> one of at least five improving every little corner of all the dead end streets on san bruno avenue.

* boce. we could go on and on, everything from the garden tour to the brand-new library to the new trees that get planted to the folks in mclaren park getting fixed up. we have the most amazing people, volunteers and neighbors. i am so incredibly proud to live in the portola and watch and be part of all the wonderful things we do. so, everybody here, give yourself a big hand. (applause) >> so, in addition to what mindy said, we should start getting a four-barrel that should get construction in february. (applause) >> without further ado, we would love to have everyone come he up here because i think half the people are from the portola. * but we are going to have barbara, let's see, barbara

senich and jackie moray to come up on stage and accept the award on behalf of the portola. (applause) >> nice t-shirt. thank you very much. here is a model of the t-shirt. [laughter] (applause) >> it is the best neighborhood you never heard of. both barbara and i are lifelong members of the neighborhood. i'm still in the same house that i grew up in. and come and see the new four-barrel when we timely get it. we're the only neighborhood that doesn't have a coffee

shop. what can i tell you? [laughter] (applause) >> as jackie said, you'll have to come out to the portola to see what's going on. and don't forget to notice our painted pillar there as you drive along 01

>> experiencing technical difficulty; please stand by >> here is the other linda to accept the award on behalf of the group. (applause) >> thank you. my name is linda light haiser and i work with help mclaren

park. alioto-pier here to accept the award on behalf of the founders of the organization, the real movers and shakers who couldn't be here tonight, chuck and [speaker not understood]. [cheering and applauding] >> their family is in peru, which is where [speaker not understood] hailses from. they're so disappointed they couldn't be here tonight. but the back story on this is chuck grew up in the portola. and next to mclaren park and he spent his whole childhood there. and when he and she married, they wanted the same childhood experiences chuck had had, and even better ones. so, they have spent their time working on the play grounds and all the other aspects of the park. and they worked so well and collaboratively with all the other park groups that represent mclaren park. parks alliance and rec and park department.

i know they want me to thank everybody who has been such an integral part of giving them this award and all the work we still have to do on mclaren park. so, thank you for chuck and trilsy. (applause) ♪ >> fantastic. easily one of the best views in san francisco, so, if you've never had the opportunity to visit mclaren park, i highly recommend it. it's like finding a whole new part of san francisco. and now it's time for our last award, which is an award that we felt was an important element of our vision for the neighborhood empower. ment network and that was to takethe opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of folks while they're still with us. so, the lifetime achievement award is for someone we feel we should take this moment in time

and thank in person for their contributions to the city. and i think we have this year's winner epitomizes the kind of person that we should take the time to acknowledge and to go further into that i'd like to actually take a moment and invite now our supervisor district 8 malia cohen who would like to share her opening thoughts on this award. (applause) >> can i just tell you how good it feels to be up here, to look out to see all the people that make everything possible, that really makes san francisco wonderful? and i just have got to give a special shout out. you knew i grew up in the portola for those that don't know. [cheering and applauding] >> right there at the intersection of silly man and colby, my parents still live there. that's where it started for me. but tonight is a night that we have abopportunity * to up lift and support and say thank you to all the people that certainly provide me support and provide me the motivation

to get up and come to work every single day. this is an opportunity to thank and praise the people that call me stop, that e-mail me, find me on facebook, send me a twitter and pick, found me on next door. i tell you, this is your day. put your hands together. hang in there, we're almost done. but this is the day that we get to celebrate -- (applause) >> i'm calling it the nen-ers. you know what's interesting? i've been around city hall long enough to watch the nen awards grow and mature into what it is today. so, i also want to give a special shout out to daniel homesy who is the originator of this. thank you, daniel. (applause) >> also i want to acknowledge his right hand christina palone, the new director, mon, mayor's office neighborhood services over there in that corner. (applause)

>> and for those of you that don't know, i represent district 10, that's the southeast neighborhoods. that's bayview, that's potrero hill, visitacion valley, it's a little hollywood, it's dogpatch. it used to be the portola, half of it. my heart is still with you, but i'm glad like the speaker said, it is whole. and that is what's important, is that that neighborhood remains whole so that our city will be whole. you agree? [cheering and applauding] cheers >> so, a few years back there was this little idea to take back the bayview and really began to rewrite the history and the narrative that we often hear about in bayview. and it actually started, ironically, with a small little abandoned swath of land that has grown up to become the cuseda garden. and it's the thought child and the physical manifestation of hard work, of a few community

leaders that got together and rolled up their sleeves and got to work. and tonight i have the honor to introduce one of the co-founders, his name is jeffery betcher. where are you? get up here. and jeff is going to introduce to you as he escorts ms. annette young smith to the stage. this lady, ladies and gentlemen, is a lifetime achievement award winner. please, please welcome her to the stage. (applause) >> i can't think of a more deserving woman. thank you. come on in. jeffery, i love you. >> i love you, too. >> hello, neighbors. good evening.

you know, first i have to say that i "heart" the portola, i really do. [laughter] >> this is an amazing win frankly for the whole southeast sector, from progress park down, and it's a wonderful night. great to be here with all of you. my name is jeffery betcher. i am the executive director of the organization that emerged 10 years ago from annette young smith and carl page's work on the block where i live. annette lived across the street from me and started planting flowers here or there around the block. and that changed everything mysteriously. and we figured out over time what it was that really created the change, and it wasn't the garden. it wasn't the plants. it was that annette was unafraid to cross the street and give a hug to someone she didn't know, who was radically different from her, and she started to build a personal

relationships that have become cusada gardens and now a network of people and places and projects that are really shaping the culture and life in bayview hunters point. it was -- it's been the distinct pleasure of my life, frankly, to careful where you move, it can change everything. but if you're going to move to a new place, annette young smith is the neighbor that you would pray to have. and i can tell you that she has been a terrific friend and mentor, too. she is still the chair of the board of the cusada gardens. we know it's quesada. [laughter] >> she is still the board. she is still very much at the heart and soul of everything we do. she is our spiritual mentor, and we love her. we truly, truly adore this woman. and i'd like to introduce her to you and i think you'll

understand why. congratulations, annette young smith. (applause) >> first of all, i thank god for being here and i thank god for all of you being here. >> amen. >> and i'd like to thank jeffery for nominating me and i accept the award. thank you. that's all. [laughter] (applause) ♪ ♪