Photo:  Award winners left to right: Albus Brooks, Lisa Durán, Chiquita Cole, and Brad and Libby Birky 

The Swanee Hunt Individual Leadership Award was presented to Lisa Durán, Director of Rights for All People and co-founder of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. Lisa is also a member of Colorado Jobs with Justice’s board and the Leadership Circle of Let Us Rise. The Swanee Hunt Youth Leadership Award was given to Chiquita Cole, a graduate of Manual High School and University of Northern Colorado. She has been a volunteer with Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) for the past 12 years and is now an Americorps Volunteer coordinator at the organization. The Hunt Awards honor women and men who spend their lives making life better for others. Hunt, for whom the award is named, is a world-renowned philanthropist, author, and the former U.S. Ambassador to Austria. 

The Judith M. Kaufmann Civic Entrepreneurship Award went to Libby and Brad Birky, the founders and owners of SAME Café, which offers healthy, delicious meals for donations of either money or time. The award is given annually in memory of Judy Kaufmann, a former employee of the Piton Foundation, who died tragically in a car accident in 1997. Created by her family and friends, the Judith M. Kaufmann Civic Entrepreneurship Award connects her memory with the creative and entrepreneurial work of community leaders who share her spirit of contribution and leadership. 

The Foundation presented the fourth annual Parr-Widener Civic Leadership Award to Albus Brooks, Denver’s District 8 Councilman and former Director of the Issachar Center for Urban Leadership. The award is named for the late John Parr, political strategist and former President of the National Civic League, and his wife Sandy Widener, co-founder of Westword Newspaper, and honors people who have worked to improve life in Metro Denver. The well-known and beloved Denver couple died in an automobile accident along with daughter, Chase, in late December of 2007. The couple’s youngest daughter, Katy, the only survivor of the crash, is now a student at the University of Colorado and helped pinpoint Brooks as the recipient because of his commitment to transforming the lives of youth.