Emmy Award-winning anchorwoman Emerald Yeh of KRON-TV will present the Ninth Annual Josephine and Frank Duveneck Humanitarian Awards, Sept. 18, at Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills.
The fund-raising awards dinner provides Hidden Villa an opportunity to recognize outstanding humanitarians as well as raise funds for its innovative environmental and multicultural education programs.
State senator and longtime champion of the environment, Byron Sher, will be honored for his guardianship of the environment. Sher has authored many landmark laws to protect the environment, including the California Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
“We are delighted to honor Senator Byron Sher with a Duveneck Humanitarian Award,” said Tom Livermore, president of the Board of Trustees of Hidden Villa. “During his tenure in public office, Byron has given a voice to many of our state and regions’ critical social and political causes.”
Livermore announced that Hidden Villa will also recognize Silicon Valley philanthropists Steven and Michele Kirsch for blazing a new trail in charitable giving and political advocacy throughout the high-tech community. The Kirsch children have attended Hidden Villa’s Summer Camp.
Hidden Villa will present an award to Keith Gutierrez, a naturalist whose history with the Villa began more than 20 years ago when he was a summer camp counselor there. Gutierrez continues to share his vision and passion with Bay Area youth, as the naturalist at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve in Los Altos.
The awards are presented in memory of Josephine and Frank Duveneck, Hidden Villa’s founders, who believed that respect for human diversity and protection of the natural environment were the foundation for a healthy, peaceful and humane world.
Over the past eight years, the dinner has raised almost $1 million to support the programs at Hidden Villa, including scholarships which enable low-income youth to participate in its 59-year-old multicultural summer camps and experimental environmental education programs on the 1,600-acre organic farm and wilderness preserve.
The awards dinner, scheduled 5-9:30 p.m., will include organic wine tasting and hors d’ oeuvres, an art exhibition by Elizabeth Murray, an organic dinner and the presentations of the awards.
Individual tickets are $175; sponsored tables of 10 range from $1,750 to $15,000. Hidden Villa is located at 26870 Moody Road, Los Altos Hills.
For more information, call Hidden Villa 949-9702 by Sept. 1, or logon to www.hiddenvilla.org.
