CCS 2006 Humanitarian Awards honor four

Intermountain Catholic

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Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. ?Rocky? Anderson (left) receives a 2006 Humanitarian Award from Diocesan Administrator Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald (second from left), while Joel Marker (center), president of the CCS Board of Trustees, presents awards to Rodney H. Brady (second from right), president and CEO of Deseret Management Corp., and Nile W. Eatmon, an attorney and child advocate with Stoel Rives. IC photos by Barbara Lee

SALT LAKE CITY — The Downtown Marriott Hotel was the setting for the 2006 Catholic Community Services of Utah (CCS) Humanitarian Awards Dinner Oct. 12. The theme of the evening, "Humanitarians wear many hats," was reflected in the table centerpieces made up of hats and roses.

With Utah actress Ann Cullimore Decker as Master of Ceremonies, the evening’s celebrations got underway after an invocation by Diocesan Administrator Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald.

The evening’s festivities honored Nile W. Eatmon, a lawyer and child advocate for Stoel Rives Attorneys at Law, who works closely with the Juvenile Justice System’s Guardian Ad Litem Program; Deseret Management’s Rodney H. Brady; and Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson. Jerry Seiner, Salt Lake City businessman and owner of Jerry Seiner Dealership Group, received CCS’ first Creative Corporate Partner Award for his philanthropic work on behalf of CCS.

Joel Marker, president of the CCS Board of Trustees, gave a brief overveiw of the past year, a trying one for CCS, the social services arm of the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

This year, CCS moved out of the building donated to the agency in 1989 by Kennecott Utah Copper, and have temporarily set up shop in the Broadway Medical Building on 300 South, Marker said. "We are currently in the process of renovating the old Bryner Clinic building which was donated to CCS by Intermountain Health Care (IHC). We would like to express our appreciation to IHC for this generous gift."

Marker said when the interior demolition and construction is completed, all services of CCS, including St. Mary’s Home, which serves men and women struggling with addictions, will collocate with the CCS administrative offices on the Bryner Clinic site. "This will be a terrific campus," Marker said. "To facilitate this move, CCS is undertaking a $2 million capital campaign."

CCS Executive Director Maggie St. Claire reflected on the many reasons people give for volunteering and giving generously to agencies like CCS, which provides warm meals to up to 700 people a day and other services to some 44,000 clients every year.

"Their reasons are a different as the people who give," St. Claire said. "And they are a different as the men receiving the awards tonight."

St. Claire told the story of CCS representatives approaching Seiner with a request to help them obtain a box truck to help CCS make furniture and other deliveries on behalf of their refugee resettlement and other programs.

"Somehow, some way, with the money we’d gathered, which wasn’t enough to buy one truck, and a contribution from Ivory Homes, Jerry and his staff managed to come up with two trucks."

St. Claire called Seiner, "a long-time friend of CCS and other agencies."

She said the institution of the Creative Corporate Partner Award is CCS’ way of recognizing businesses and corporations who contribute to the agency in non-traditional ways.

St. Claire presented Seiner with a plaque which will serve as a traveling trophy, going to each year’s honoree, and a drawing of Seiner and his son done by a CCS client.

Seiner said he is "the luckiest man in the world," blessed with the time, the spirit, and the means by which to support CCS and other human services agencies. He told the story of one lunch-time encounter with a 10-month-old CCS client at the William K. Weigand Center who tugged on his pant leg in an effort to get a little human contact.

"We are the lucky ones," Seiner said. "We each need to choose how we will give, what we will do to make this world a little better.

Introduced by Kristin Brewer, head of the Juvenile Justice System’s Guardian Ad Litem Program, Eatmon was described as "a big man with a bigger heart" and "a quiet hero."

Brewer cited Eatmon’s assistance in opening CCS’ Joyce Hanson Hall Food Bank in Ogden and the care and passion with which he approaches children in need of legal assistance. Through the Guardian Ad Litem program Eatmon offers pro-bono services to abused and neglected children.

Eatmon cited CCS for all the good work done by the agency.

"Often, all we can offer these children is being the one compassionate adult in their lives," he said. He thanked his family for supporting him, both in his career and his humanitarian work.

Don Gale of "Words Words Words" introduced Rodney H. Brady, saying Brady "sees what others don’t see and searched for people’s needs."

Brady, who has served in the sub-cabinet of a U.S. president, worked with Hughes Aircraft, Inc, and helped guide Bonneville, International, as well as served as a president of Weber State University, thanked CCS for recognizing him. He said he is honored to have a close working relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Millions of items people throughout the world need are provided by the LDS Church through Catholic Community Services," Brady said.

Introduced by Mary Dickson, Mayor Anderson was described as "a man with a keen social consciousness, integrity and courage, and a man who speaks on behalf of the voiceless. Dickson said Anderson also has opened his home to the homeless.

Anderson said he was touched by the "generosity and kindness expressed toward me tonight. It’s quite a switch from what I’m used to."

Saying he has been "incredibly fortunate in my life to have had a loving, supportive family, amazing friends whose everyday lives serve as tremendous inspiration to me, and the honor and privilege of working over the years with people who bring to their endeavors such passion, energy, and a commitment to making our community and our world a better place..."

Anderson went on to speak about many of the issues he embraces with passion, including justice and compassion toward one another and protection of the earth.