Hundreds Honor 12th Annual Human Rights Awards Recipients

Many past recipients from the Santa Paula area were present at the celebration including City Councilmember Dr. Gabino Aguirre, who was honored for his human rights stance in 1992, Ms. Elsa Campbell and representatives of the Santa Clara Valley Hospice Home Support Group.

The large banquet hall, richly but elegantly decorated, held over three hundred and twenty five adults, including many county and city dignitaries, as they came together to honor both the 54th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and also individuals who have made humanitarian contributions within their communities.

This year the Awards for Human Rights were bestowed upon Ms. Ethel Hayman, whose accomplishments as an educator have gone far beyond the call of professional duty as a member of the Oxnard School District where she has coordinated the anti-drug and tobacco education programs for the District and, for the past ten years and has chaired the AIDS/Human Growth and Development committee, and Mr. Rick Schroeder, Executive Director of Many Mansions in Thousand Oaks, a private non-profit housing corporation that owns and operates seven apartment complexes and houses over 1300 people.

In accepting his award, Schroeder referred to the language of documents such as legal documents, the US Constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, saying that “written words have no meaning unless we put the principles embedded within them into action.”

Also recognized for humanitarian achievements were Dennis Stafford and Faith Holmes of Woodland Hills for co-founding the non-profit organization “Oneness” which provides education to eliminate racism and promote racial unity through music and the arts; Robin Martin of Ventura for promoting inter-faith dialogue and organizing the annual All-Faiths Women of Vision Conference; John and Jackie Treuting of the Conejo Valley for organizing exchange programs for Japanese students and Adopt-a-family food share programs; Jeannette Scovill of Thousand Oaks for producing educational programs for local cable TV and promoting the education of women; and Larry Wayman of Oxnard for founding the Faith Connection of Ventura County which reaches out to people of all racial and religious backgrounds to offer solace to families when acts of violence disrupt their lives.

This highly anticipated and esteemed event, once more attracted many dignitaries from the county’s communities including the Mexican Consul - Senor Fernando Gamboa and his wife Mariana, Mr. John Flynn - Chairman of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, Mr. Jonathan Sharkey - Mayor of Port Hueneme, Mr.Dean Maulhardt - Mayor Pro Tem of Oxnard, Mr. Bedford Pinkard - Oxnard City Council Member, Mr. Murray Rosenbluth - Port Hueneme City Council Member, Mr.Richard Duarte - Superintendent of the Oxnard School District, Ms. Betty De Santis - Mayor of Westlake.

Baha’is hold the Human Rights Awards each year in December to commemorate the anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and to highlight local humanitarian efforts. For information about the Awards or the Baha’i Faith call 1-800-22UNITE or visit websites www.humanrightsawards.org or www.bahai.org

©Copyright 2003, Santa Paula Times (CA, USA)

Following is the URL to the original story. The site may have removed or archived this story. URL: http://www.santapaulatimes.com/news/archivestory.php/aid/4251/Hundreds_Honor_12th_Annual_Human_Rights_Awards_Recipients.html