(Contributed photo)
WATSONVILLE — The Board of Directors of the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust honored two winners of the 2017 Phil Rather Award for Leadership in Healthcare during a reception held at the Health Trust on Wednesday.
Honorees included Food, What?! for initiating and sustaining programs designed to help young people learn about the food system. Eleanor Littman was also awarded for her more than three decades of pioneering ideas and programs and for healthcare leadership.
The Health Trust celebrated the winners at the Rather Award reception at the foundation’s Kathleen A. King Community Room at 85 Nielson St. in Watsonville. The celebration drew a crowd of 65 friends, family and other supporters, including Betty Rather and Phil Rather’s daughters, Amy and Kathy, as well as granddaughter, Lorna, and great-grandson, Garry.
“Kindness, positive energy, a ‘can-do’ attitude, creativity, responsiveness, innovation and humility are tremendous assets,” said Health Trust CEO Caitlin Brune. “Those honored this evening use these assets to make our community a healthier, more vibrant and equitable place to call home. They deliver real achievements that accrue to realizing the Health Trust’s vision of good health and quality of life for all residents of the Pajaro Valley, especially the most disenfranchised.”
Food, What?! was the recipient of the 2017 Rather Award in the organizational award category. Watsonville City Councilwoman Rebecca Garcia presented the award to Doron Comerchero, executive director of Food, What?!
“Working from a base at Discovery Farm and locations sprinkled around greater Watsonville, Food, What?! uses sustainable agriculture and health education as tools for growing strong, resilient, successful teens,” Garcia said. “Nearly 80 percent of Food, What?! alumni report that their involvement played a pivotal role in helping them graduate high school, and nearly all — 96 percent — remark that Food, What?! played a significant role in preparing them to live a productive life.”
Uriel Reyes, an alumnus of Food, What?!, said the organization “helped me to understand myself, my diet, and where I was going.”
“Food is more than what we consume, what powers us in the morning, what gets us going,” he said. “Food is essentially part of us. It’s who we are. It has a bit of our culture, and a bit of what we will become.”
Donna Ramos, a retired healthcare leader and serial entrepreneur who helped to found Hospice of Santa Cruz County and the Health Improvement Partnership of Santa Cruz County, followed with a presentation to Eleanor Littman, the individual Phil Rather Awardee.
“I have always held Phil Rather in the highest regard. He was the epitome of professionalism, kindness and leadership,” Ramos said. “While those qualities don’t often come in one package, tonight we are here to honor a person who shares those characteristics. Like Phil, Ellie Littman has worked more than 30 years in our community and has made an enormous difference in the quality of our community’s health care.”
The Health Trust created the Phil Rather Award for Leadership in Healthcare in 1999. The award was inspired by its namesake and first recipient, Phil Rather, whose volunteer leadership in health care spanned more than 30 years in the Pajaro Valley, including leadership of two successful capital campaigns for Watsonville Community Hospital and serving as founding director of the Watsonville Community Hospital Foundation.
