Applicants Sought for Fernando Award

Community groups have until Tuesday to nominate outstanding volunteers for the Fernando Award, which recognizes a lifetime of service in the San Fernando Valley.

About 20 to 25 application packets have been sent out, said Jeffrey Glassman, president of the Fernando Award Foundation Inc. So far only one or two completed nominations have been returned.

The Fernando Award has been given every year since 1959. The field of nominees will be narrowed to five finalists to be announced Aug. 22 at the Jesse McHam Fernando Award Nomination Luncheon at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in North Hollywood.

Board members of the Fernando Award Foundation, past award recipients and other supporters vote on a final winner to be named in November.

Earlier this month, the Fernando Award organization named Jennifer Schlesinger of North Hollywood the winner of its $1,000 scholarship.

Schlesinger, 17, was one of nine North Hollywood High School seniors who applied, said Karl Boeckmann, chairman of the scholarship committee. This is the first year that the Fernando Award group has given a scholarship to promote volunteerism among youth.

Last year’s Fernando Award winner, Nancy Schmidt, chose North Hollywood High as the school where the award would be given to a graduating senior.

Schlesinger, who will attend UC Berkeley in the fall, works as a candy striper at North Hollywood Medical Center, volunteers at the Valley Shelter and delivers food to home-bound AIDS patients through Project Angel Food two or three times a week.

“I hope my peers will look at that and it will spark some interest with them,” she said. Schlesinger will get the scholarship at the luncheon in August.

For more information on how to nominate someone for the Fernando Award, call Glassman at (213) 229-5006.