10 Volunteers Vie for Fernando Award

Five finalists from among 10 nominees for this year’s Fernando Award will be named during a luncheon Friday at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel.

The honor has been given annually since 1958 to the person who best exemplifies the spirit of volunteerism in the San Fernando Valley.

The nominees include are Martha Diaz Aszkenazy, a Sun Valley native who has served as chairwoman of the Greater San Fernando Chamber of Commerce; Ed Cholakian, Granada Hills, longtime member of local public safety advisory committees; Rickey M. Gelb, Studio City, vice president of the Plan Review Board for the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan; and Rose Goldwater, Woodland Hills, community activist and founding chairwoman of the West Hills Hospital Community Advisory Board.

Also nominated are Esther J. Neill, Van Nuys, vice president of Community Development of the Universal City-North Hollywood Jaycees; Bob Scott, West Hills, of the United Chambers of Commerce and the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley; and Marvin R. Selter, Studio City, chairman of the board of the Valley Economic Development Center.

The remaining nominees are Irwin S. Silon, Arleta, who has helped police organize business crime watches in the northeast Valley; M. Hawley Smith, Arleta, president of the Arleta Chamber of Commerce; and Ellie Vargas, Woodland Hills, founder of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Area Crisis Response Team.

Praising all the nominees for “the enhancements they have made to our quality of life,” Tom Soule, president of the Fernando Award Foundation Inc., said they reflect “the quality and diversity of the people whose dedication to their community sustains the Valley’s reputation for being the Volunteer Capital of the U.S.”

Gelb, Goldwater, Scott and Silon are previous nominees for the award, and Goldwater and Scott are also previous finalists.

The name of the winner will be inscribed on a statue at the Van Nuys Civic Center and on an obelisk at Warner Park in Woodland Hills.

Last year’s winner, chosen from among 14 nominees, was Northridge attorney Lee Kanon Alpert, whose community activities include membership on the city’s Commission on Neighborhood Councils and the CSUN Advisory Board.