Les Tupper winners named
Five individuals and one high school organization have been selected winners of this year’s prestigious Les Tupper Community Service Awards and are to be honored in a May 11 ceremony in von Karman Auditorium at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Recipients include former La Cañada Unified School Board President Scott Tracy; retired JPLer and longtime volunteer Bill Sjogren; former teacher and past chairman of the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce Barbara Marshall; La Cañada High School senior Nicole Stevens; Flintridge Sacred Heart senior Kaitlin Powers; and the LCHS club Teens for the Advancement of Children’s Hospital (TACH).
The awards will be presented by the La Cañada Flintridge Coordinating Council, a nonprofit coordinating body for several area volunteer and service organizations. The council considers a candidate’s long-term, broad-based community service outside the workplace in the areas of education, youth activities, cultural pursuits, religious, business, civic or social service. Student recipients must be actively involved in service-related activities on or off campus.
Tracy has volunteered with several area service organizations since moving to La Cañada 32 years ago with wife Mary. In his 10 years with the La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation from 1994 to 2004, he served as trustee for the Educational Foundation Endowment and was president of its board of directors from 1998 to 2000.
In addition to his 12 years serving on the La Cañada school board, Tracy was a founding member of UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate, a joint research center of the university’s Anderson School of Management and School of Law. In 2014, he received a special commendation from state Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) for his exemplary record of community and civic leadership.
Sjogren has served La Cañada faithfully since moving to town in 1962. A retired senior research scientist for NASA’s JPL, he’s volunteered for YMCA of the Foothills and the La Cañada Flintridge Library, among other organizations. For 15 years, he and wife Mary Alice provided a temporary safe house to 135 victims of domestic violence and abuse.
For the past 14 years, Sjogren has helped build homes for needy families through the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity. He has also contributed to the La Cañada Methodist Church’s Children’s Center and the Brothers Helpers Program at St. Bede Catholic Church. In appreciation for his contributions to the field of gravity, the crew members of Apollo 16 in April 1972 presented Sjogren with an American flag that had flown to the moon.
Perhaps best known for her 17 years of service to the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce and Community Assn.— where she’s served on the board of directors and as chief financial officer — Marshall has also been actively involved in the Assistance League of Flintridge and on the boards of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, the Glendale Community College Foundation and the Glendale area Schools Federal Credit Union.
A La Cañada resident since 1978, Marshall is current owner of the local State Farm Insurance. She worked for Glendale Unified School District for 20 years as a teacher and job training specialist. Marshall has also significantly contributed to the chamber’s annual Fiesta Days and “Movie in the Park” series, serving on the Fiesta Days Weekend Events Committee since 2009.
The current vice president of La Cañada High School’s Associated Student Body, Stevens has also served as treasurer and class representative in her two years there. In those capacities, she’s helped coordinate blood drives and fundraisers, as well as planning school dances and rallies.
In her 13th year as a Girl Scout, Stevens traveled to Kenya and worked with children from area orphanages for her Gold Award project. She also traveled to the Bahamas, where she worked with Next Step Ministries Missions to build houses for people infected with HIV/AIDS. Her community activities include the YMCA’s Youth in Government program and volunteering at La Cañada Presbyterian Church, where she’s worked with the ROOTS Youth Ministry Leadership Team and Small Groups program for six years.
A La Cañada resident, Powers currently balances an academic course load with being captain of the varsity softball team and her involvement as a peer leader for the Campus Ministry Leadership Team. She’s tutored students through the Hathaway-Sycamores learning center and the Star Tutoring Program, and has been involved in the National Charity League, United Friends of the Children, YWCA, Special Olympics and the Ascensia homeless shelter in Glendale.
In 2014, Powers was crowned Miss La Cañada Flintridge. The year before that, she traveled to Kenya for three weeks to work with orphaned youth. In 2011, she built houses in Mississippi through Habitat for Humanity. She’s also a 10-year member of the La Cañada Baseball/Softball Assn., where she plays on both the community and all-star teams.
The Teens for the Advancement of Children’s Hospital (TACH) Club was founded in 2001 by students whose mothers served in the Flintridge Guild of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Today, the LCHS club has 45 members. The club’s mission is to assist underprivileged teens served by the hospital’s Adolescent Medicine Division by organizing several local fundraisers throughout the school year. Its signature event, the “TACH Bash,” was held Sunday in La Cañada’s Memorial Park.
This year’s May 11 awards ceremony begins at 7 p.m. Community members and friends and families of the awardees are invited to attend. For more information, visit lcfcc.info or call (818) 248-9661.
