The inaugural PBS Reno Spotlight Awards & Auction – a community awards show highlighting individuals and community groups making a positive impact in our region. It’s like the Oscars, but for people doing good in our community! Winners were revealed live on-air on September 13!
The Adopt a Vet Dental Program is a non-profit organization that recruits dental professionals to provide pro bono dental care to low-income veterans, and raises funds to offset dental lab, dental clinic, and operational costs. By providing dental care to veterans who do not qualify at the VA or cannot afford dentistry, AAVD has been working to address this overwhelming challenge to northern Nevada veterans since 2009.
Awaken is a faith based non-profit whose mission is to increase awareness and education surrounding the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and to provide housing and restoration for victims. Awaken provides program participants with long-term and emergency needs including basic outreach, mentorship services, counseling, transitional housing, transportation, financial aid for college, legal and medical assistance, drop-in center and much more.
In 2019, Eddy House engaged with 519 youth experiencing homelessness in Northern Nevada. Eddy House worked with these youth to develop life and job skills necessary for sustainable independence. The new Eddy House facility provides the community with its first 24-hour/365 days a-year program that serves this population. It includes an overnight shelter for up to 20 young adults, a five-bed emergency shelter, and a new results-oriented Community Living Program. Eddy House works to end youth homelessness in Northern Nevada.
Capability Health & Human Services is a non-profit providing physical, occupational, speech and feeding/nutrition therapy as well as educational services for children up to age 3 and their families in their homes through its Early Intervention Program and for children of all ages in state-of-the-art therapy clinics located in Las Vegas and Reno. Capability Health & Human Services has ensured children with developmental delays receive uninterrupted services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DoughBoys Donuts makes it a priority to support the community in which they live and do business. Bolstering a number of schools, non-profit organizations, Little Leagues and community events through sponsorships and donations, DoughBoys uses the hashtag #DoughGood to encourage others to help out in the community. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, DoughBoys Donuts has donated donuts to hospital staff throughout the Reno area as well as donating leftover donuts to the Salvation Army.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Roundabout Catering partnered with Renown Health to provide food services for frontline workers, doctors, nurses, hospital personnel and more, supplying approximately 1,600 meals daily. Roundabout has also provided food services for the American Heart Association Heart Ball, the Rotary Club of Reno, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada, Casa de Vida, St. Francis of Assisi Food Pantry, Discovery Museum and The Children’s Cabinet.
Beckee Foote is a first grade teacher at Nancy Gomes Elementary School and has been teaching for 30 years. She strives hard every year to build strong relationships, not only with her students, but also with their entire family. She communicates with each family at least once a week, and celebrates all accomplishments, milestones, and successes with her students. Mrs. Foote stresses respect above anything else in her classroom, and her students learn through great modeling and lots of practice to respect themselves and others. On a monthly basis, her students write cards and letters to Saint Jude's Children's Hospital, Shriners Hospital, and senior centers in Reno.
Cristy Fernandez teaches a fourth and fifth grade dual language classroom at Jessie Beck Elementary School. She arrives at school early in the morning to provide support to students who are struggling in class, and she provides additional tutoring after school. She uses her prep time to help students from other classes and uses her own lunchtime to get to know her students. Miss Fernandez is well loved by her students. During Distance Learning, Miss Fernandez taught lessons via Zoom 3-4 times a day, 5 days a week. She differentiated her teaching methods to support her students and parents, even visiting them outside their homes to provide additional instruction and support.
Dr. Marie Duan Meservy is a neuroradiologist in Reno who volunteers at UNR medical school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the US was already facing a doctor shortage, the local medical students found their clinical rotations canceled and they needed a way to earn credit towards graduation in order to join the workforce. To help them graduate, Dr. Meservy devised a distance-learning Radiology course with lectures tailored to each student's learning needs and future specialties. She also mentored students outside of the course to help them land competitive residency spots. She taught her course for two months without asking for compensation, while continuing to work full-time as a physician.
Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell works full time as the Saint Mary's Urgent Care Medical Director and treating physician, as well as the medical director for Washoe County’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). She also volunteers as the Washoe County Child Abuse Resource and Education Services Assistant Medical Examiner and as community faculty for the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine providing urgent care preceptorship for medical students and family medicine residents.
Cheree Boteler is the Chief Marketing Officer at STEP2, a local non-profit with a mission to break the cycle of addiction in families. Ms. Boteler also recently formed the Hospitality Industry Partnerships (HIP), a non-profit formed with the mission to feed hospitality and service industry team members who are out of work or have been placed on reduced hours during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Janet Atkinson is an advocate for a stable climate for current and future generations and has initiated school district resolutions for climate action in Washoe County and Carson City. Ms. Atkinson is a volunteer for 100% Renewable Truckee, Protect Our Winters, Citizens' Climate Lobby, and Schools for Climate Action and is part of a scholarship committee that works to send students from Tahoe to Washington D.C. to meet with Congress about climate solutions.
Arian Evans is a high school student from Fallon, Nevada who works to make a difference in her community through projects like creating adoption bags for the Fallon Animal Shelter and assembling 100 emergency hygiene bags for her middle school with her Girl Scout troop. As a role model for younger Girl Scouts by being a co-leader of a Daisy (Kindergarten and First Grade) troop, she helps younger girls with badges and projects within the troop, leading by example and guiding these young girls to find their own interests and to develop their self-advocacy skills. Recently, Arian led a virtual "How To" session on Birch Bark Biting Art which was attended by Girl Scouts from eight different states. This session was part of a larger project to educate 6th, 7th and 8th graders on identification, health, importance, and history of trees.
Avery Pipkin and her Junior Service Learning Project team partnered with Renown Health to have school zones and crosswalks installed in the community after multiple vehicle versus pedestrian incidents in 2019. By scheduling media events and holding press conferences to spread school zone awareness, Avery and her team were able to create enough movement with city officials to create an extensive traffic study for areas that need more crosswalk safety, which led to their first school zone being installed at the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology in December 2019. On February 26, 2020, during the group's Junior Service Learning presentation, they were presented with a check for $60,000 from Renown, which with Avery’s continued help, more crosswalks and safety initiatives will be installed.
Persevering through poverty while often serving as a parent figure to her younger sibling, Monique Magee recently graduated Hug High School with a 4.0 GPA, and was accepted to the University of Nevada, Reno. She is an Alumni of Communities in Schools of Western Nevada (CIS), and feels compelled to demonstrate to students who live under similar circumstances, that they can succeed and discover their own unique potential, ultimately finding their rightful place in society and growing up to make a positive difference. After first connecting with the CIS services in the seventh grade, she spent a few years of living out of a suitcase and even leaving Reno for a short while, returning to attend high school. As a volunteer for the CIS fundraising campaigns, she helped the organization raise more than $50,000. In the coming year, Monique will serve on the CIS inaugural Alumni Advisory Council.
Items can be picked up Tuesday, September 15 or Wednesday, September 16 • Hours 10 AM - 5 PM At PBS Reno at 1670 N. Virginia St. in Reno Must wear a mask
More About SPOTLIGHT AWARDS & AUCTION
On-Air Auction
Back by popular demand, PBS Reno will incorporate an on-air auction into the Spotlight Awards show. This high-end auction will feature travel packages, wine, local and regional experiences, and several priceless PBS experiences. On-line bidding will open in late August, culminating in the live on-air event September 13.
Sponsorship
Sponsors will be promoted heavily on-air throughout the buildup to the event and on the live awards night. From sponsoring an award category, to having your company featured as a sponsor of a finalist’s on-air piece, to sponsoring portions of the awards ceremony, the PBS Reno Spotlight Awards and Auction is a great way to connect with our community.
Contact Diane Barrett, Community Partnership Executive, at 775.600.0584 and dbarrett@pbsreno.org; or Jane Raley, Development Officer, 775.600.0549 and jraley@pbsreno.org; for more information on ways to get involved.
All proceeds benefit PBS Reno, so that we are able to provide quality programming and educational services to more than 115,000 residents throughout northern and central Nevada and northeastern California.
Sponsored in part by
Sara & Leonard Lafrance | Charlotte & Dick McConnell | Elizabeth Raymond & James Pagliarini
Christine Fey, Bill Sheldon, Margo Piscevich and Mylan Hawkins | Christine & David Thompson
