Community Foundation for Oak Park

Golden Acorn Award

The Golden Acorn award was established by the Oak Park Civic Association to honor residents for their ongoing volunteer service to the community. When the Oak Park Civic Association dissolved in 1987, the Community Foundation assumed responsibility for awarding the Golden Acorn.

The Golden Acorn is not merely a reward for past service. Instead, it also signifies that the recipient is a person who is dedicated to continuing, ongoing community service without seeking rewards. To receive the Golden Acorn, a person must meet the following criteria:

• The recipient must be a resident of Oak Park during the time that voluntary service was rendered and must still be a resident of Oak Park at the time he or she is selected by the Award Committee to receive the Golden Acorn.
• The past community service demonstrated by the Golden Acorn recipient must have been multi-faceted and rendered without pay.
• The person must exhibit a dedication to community service that indicates he or she will continue to serve Oak Park after receiving the Golden Acorn.
• The person must not have received a prior Golden Acorn during the past five years.
• The recipient is an individual person (of any age), not an organization or a family.
• The person is not the current President of the Community Foundation or a member of the current Award Committee.

The President of the Community Foundation solicits the community to nominate residents for the Golden Acorn. The President then appoints a confidential Award Committee to evaluate nominations and determine whether anyone should receive the award. At least one member of the Award Committee is a past recipient of Golden Acorn. The Award Committee meets in private — without the President — so that its deliberations are shielded from community pressure. When a recipient is determined, the award is presented at a public event where it is known the person being honored will indeed attend. Usually, the award is a total surprise to the recipient.

Recipients

Carolyn Benjamin 1978	Jack Monico 1979	David Ross 1980
Ron Stark 1981	Pat Manning 1982	William Siverson 1983
Charles Monico 1984	Sherry Kirsch 1985	Jack Monico 1986
Kent Behringer 1987	Steve Iceland 1989	Diane Starzak 2002
Harvey Kern 2004	Cindi Gortner 2006

Note: The above list is incomplete because past records of the award cannot be found. If you know of someone else who received the Golden Acorn Award or if you know the year of any of the above awards, please notify the Webmaster.

Last updated 12 October 2006

Community Foundation for Oak Park • P. O. Box 291 • Agoura, CA 91376-0291

Copyright © 2002-2006 by Community Foundation