Again, congratulations. Now wed like to make a slight modification in our program this evening and were going to be moving to the award for best Merchant Association of the year, the lower haight Merchant Association. Id like to invite walking tours up and the Mayors Office of economic development. Our newest supervisor, supervisor london breed. Lets give him a round of applause. applause hi, are you going to speak first or me . You, please. Hi, everybody. Im so happy to be here to celebrate this what is it, the Neighborhood Empowerment Network awards. This is like the fifth year that this has happened and i remember just about two years ago when the divisadero corridor received the same award. So, it is truly an honor to be here as the district 5 supervisor. The neighborhood i live in, to see many of the people i know, theyre all sitting in the front row. I see you, joe, from john mere pierre from the meat store and pierre was front and center when that fire happened on walgreens on f
Thank our sponsors. Once again, pg e the fifth year in a row stepped up and become a major sponsor here for the Neighborhood Empowerment Network. We have two new Event Sponsors this year. We have next door, which is a new Online Program here in San Francisco, new Neighborhood Service which many of people in this room are using. Youll have more chance to hear from this if you advise the the life night court event. Sterling bank, one of the great local banks we have here in San Francisco. Without further ado wed like to begin tonights program and were going to start off with a message from mayor ed lee. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the fifth annual Neighborhood Empowerment Network awards. While im unable to attend this years event, i want to express my deep appreciation to tonights award recipients for the extraordinary work and service that they provide to our cities, neighborhoods every day. All of the award recipients share one common goal. And that is to ensure that San Fra
Our next award is for the best Community Green community project. And id like to just sort of jump forward a little bit and invite darlene zane to come up and give the award. Here she comes. [cheering and applauding] hello, everyone. So, for years the portola and its the portola, foster recognition. And, dan, things started happening. One of the things that gave attention to our neighborhood is when we decided we were going to have a new branch library. Ruth wallace came up with the idea of a garden tour and a lot of us thought, a garden tour . Our neighborhood . Who is going to come . Well, we had every weve done it for six years. Every year weve grown incrementally. After the first two years of raising money for the library theres our new library we then it was such a Great Community builder that we recently decided to keep wanting to volunteering and do it. We established a scholarship at city college for the horticultural department. And we have just gone gangbusters. We get good p
Thank you to all of our neighbors because we have lived in that neighborhood for 37 years and its just been such a joy to meet people who live right across the street and never knew what wonderful neighbors i had until we started the Neighborhood Watch group. So, i would strongly advise everyone to start a Neighborhood Watch group. Its great. And thanks to patricia, shes done an outstanding job and im so happy she took over as block captain for me. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. applause applause our next award is for the best Community Green community project. And id like to just sort of jump forward a little bit and invite darlene zane to come up and give the award. Here she comes. [cheering and applauding] hello, everyone. So, for years the portola and its the portola, foster recognition. And, dan, things started happening. One of the things that gave attention to our neighborhood is when we decided we were going to have a new branch library. Ruth wallace came up with the idea of a
City hall. Thank you all so much for joining us here tonight. It is an honor to be here. My name is daniel homsby and i am the Program Manager for the Neighborhood Department networks. An honor to see you here. Many of the same faces for the fifth year for the men awards. Lets give you an a plays for coming back. applause and celebrating one of the most important things we have in San Francisco, which is our neighborhoods. Without further ado, id like to start the program off by introducing my colleague, christina palone, the new director for the Mayors Office for neighborhoods. Christina palone. applause good evening, everyone. Im happy to be a part of such a great ebit that celebrates the contributions made by residents and organizations throughout the city to make San Francisco one of the greatest places to live. The Mayors Office of Neighborhood Services also known as mons focuses on Neighborhood Outreach and engagement. It is an honor to be here with Community Leaders who are dedi