Finalists
2006 Finalists
With tales of common and uncommon and random and not-so-random acts of kindness, the following are the winners of the first annual XO Awards sponsored by Connect Magazine and the law offices of Kirton & McConkie: The award designed to give back to those who are constantly giving back.
Kayleen Simmons, People Helping People
"There are over 44,000 single moms in Utah and 45 percent of their kids live in poverty," says Kimberley Jones of Verite, Inc. "In Utah, one in five children misses at least one meal a day. Only 20 percent of low-wage earners have health insurance."
In 1993, Kayleen Simmons formed People Helping People (www.mentors4women.org), an employment mentoring program designed to help Utah's single moms gain successful employment and secure financial stability. "Rather than help the poor live better, PHP allows them to continually improve their income where they won't need the help of subsidized programs. We're taking them from poverty to productivity," says Simmons. Since 1993, PHP has provided services to over 1,600 women and outreach to thousands more with the help of community volunteers.
Through open-enrollment workshops and unique long-term mentoring, PHP's training programs help women attain personal responsibility; to develop job skills, and gain career planning and resume and interviewing techniques among other obstacles like building self confidence and job-search perseverance.
"Kayleen doesn't just provide hope and a brighter path for struggling single parents, she cares about these people and gives them her all and it shows," says Jones, who nominated Simmons for the award. "I have never seen someone so dedicated to helping others."
Frank Anthony "Tony" Allen, Cause for Hope
By day, Frank "Tony" Allen works full-time as Chief Legal Counsel at ProPay, an online payment service. But Allen devotes his out-of-office hours to Cause for Hope (www.causeforhope.org), a program that offers economic assistance to some of the most poverty-stricken areas in Central America. Cause for Hope accomplishes this by promoting job creation, providing micro-credit loans to small business owners, offering educational and vocational training, and installing poverty reduction programs.
Allen travels to various locations in Central America three times a year to work with local project managers, like helping one small business owner to become the largest wholesale candy distributor in Choluteca, Honduras. He also helped facilitate the creation of Grandway Honduras—which produces drawer organizer products sold at major retail stores—and now employs more than 250 people and is one of the most sought-after employers in Choluteca.
Allen is also the Chairman of the Washington County Volunteer Center and founder of Friends of the Volunteer Center for Washington County. He served as President and Director of United Way of Washington, President of the Kiwanis Club, and served on the Redevelopment Agency in St. George. He also helped to create the Cougar Club at BYU.
Kelly Sheppard, Eagle-Condor Humanitarian
Ron Zarbock, who nominated Kelly Sheppard, first met him eight years ago on a humanitarian expedition to Peru. Since then, they've teamed up to head excursions to Andean villages each year. The pair also founded Eagle-Condor Humanitarian (www.eagle-condor.org, formerly known as Chasqui Humanitarian).
"Kelly has been instrumental in developing business training and micro loans to assist an impoverished people with a 60 percent unemployment rate which helps them gain traction for a hope-filled, fulfilling life," says Zarbock.
Eagle-Condor establishes this through four objectives that include micro-enterprise, help and hygiene, construction, and literacy and libraries. Eagle-Condor is responsible for the construction of greenhouses, public restrooms, libraries and community centers in Peru. Additionally, it sends literacy and health-and-hygiene groups to the area annually.
Over the past three years Sheppard has helped more than 100 runners complete the St. George Marathon through RUN For a Difference, founded by Zarbock—resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars that will benefit the Peruvian people. This year, there will be over 50 athletes running for Eagle-Condor's micro-loan department, raising $50,000.
Dennis Lloyd, Workers Compensation Fund
Dennis Lloyd may be both a lawyer and general counsel for an insurance company, but according to Heather Beers of Momentum Communications, there's more to Lloyd than meets the legal documents.
Beers first met Lloyd when she was assisting in organizing an event for Legacy of Learning, the Workers Compensation Fund project that Lloyd created to award scholarships to spouses and children who have lost family members in work-related fatalities. "These are wives, husbands, sons and daughters who have been devastated by personal tragedy, who are able to pursue education—often necessary to newfound breadwinners," says Beers. Since its inception, WCF has granted more than $1 million in scholarships through Lloyd's program.
Lloyd's other passion is workplace safety. To that end, he has crafted a scholarship program for graduate students pursuing careers in occupational safety and industrial hygiene through the University of Utah's Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (RMC).
Additionally, to keep RMC viable, Lloyd assisted in drafting legislation in 2005 that would create sources for funding. Because of his efforts, WCF is donating $250,000 to RMC this year, with contributions from other companies, as well.
"Dennis has served on countless boards and charitable causes," says Beers. "But beyond all the professional and personal commitments, he is just one of those guys who quietly, ardently make the world a better place to be."
Vance Smith, Vietnam War Veteran
When Vance Smith returned home from the Vietnam War in the summer of 1968, he was the sole survivor of a shell attack on his tank. He remembers a time when the Kearns American Legion placed flags on the graves of Veterans, but as generations turned over, the flags stopped going up. "The flags were still delivered and were available for people to use, but there was nobody to put up the flags. There were thousands and thousands of graves—some of them without even a flower on Memorial Day."
Though Smith can't remember exactly, he estimates that since 1983 he has dedicated his Memorial Day weekends to placing 3,000 flags on the graves of Veterans of the United States' past wars at Valley View Cemetery in West Valley City.
Fifteen-year-old Monte Pendleton, who nominated Smith for an XO Award, helped out with the task this year as part of his Eagle Scout project. Pendleton estimates that in previous years, placing the flags took Smith as long as four days. "He is a very kind man and cares about everyone," says Pendleton. "He is patriotic and tries to do all he can for his country. He's someone I look up to."
Smith says that he's just doing his part to let those soldiers know that they aren't forgotten. "These people walked the line to keep me free. I couldn't sleep at night knowing that these kids were forgotten. I don't want this to sound hokey, but this effort is near and dear to my heart. It's my way of acknowledging that I was one of the lucky ones, and letting them know that they are special."
Rita Bowers, The Bowers Family
Beth Pearson, friend of Rita Bowers calls her the "Super Mom for the Bowers clan." But she's also "a kind-hearted, genuinely good person," says Pearson. Because of Bowers' warm nature, "people often end up telling her details about their lives that they don't generally tell people," she explains. "Not only is Rita interested in all of these people and their lives, but she will then go on to worry about them and keep track of them."
Bowers has taken it up a notch, though, with her latest act of kindness. When it was discovered that the friend of her six-year-old daughter suffered from a severe kidney problem and needed a kidney transplant, Bowers stepped in and offered to be the donor. It's what Pearson calls Bowers' "natural reaction."
Bowers returned to work last year as a teacher's aid to help pay down her family's medical bills. Though the receiver's insurance covers the expenses of the donor procedure, Bowers had to take unpaid time off in order to facilitate the life-saving operation.
"(Bowers' family) worries about her but they know Rita has to do this and they give their mother full support as she offers her gift of life," says Pearson. "As a friend, I merely stand to the side in awe."
Nancy Hale, Alpine School District
"Nancy has not done one particular act of kindness, that, by itself, would merit this award," says Vance Hale, Nancy's husband, who is responsible for her nomination. "Rather, she is the embodiment of kindness every day in her life."
According to Vance Hale, Nancy's life is one continuing story of kindness and service. An elementary school teacher by profession, she taught mornings part-time and donated her afternoons to volunteer tutoring for her students who struggled in math. These same students progressed so greatly that one state school official reportedly accused Nancy of cheating.
Today, neighborhood children—and parents obtaining their college degrees—call to ask Nancy for help, which she cheerfully accommodates. Several adults say they couldn't have earned their diplomas without Nancy's math and teaching know-how. Her volunteer service affected so many that Orem High School awarded her its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003.
Twelve years ago, Nancy was diagnosed with cancer and underwent a year's worth of chemotherapy. With the exception of surgery, she didn't miss a day of school, even when she was feeling much less than 100 percent. She wanted to be with her schoolchildren, who, according to Vance, still "love her to death."
Norma Jurado, Uintah Basin Community Services and Food Pantry
In 2005 alone, Norma Jurado helped more than 4,000 impoverished citizens by offering emergency shelter and food through Uintah Basin Community Services and Food Pantry. She currently serves as the Community Services Coordinator, but according to nominator Barbara Kaye, she is "much, much more" than that.
She's known for being both compassionate and feisty, and that must be a necessary temperament combination for a workload that would, under well-funded circumstances, require two. Jurado is solely responsible for monitoring and seeking-out new funding sources for the operation.
"Homelessness in the (Uintah) Basin is different than in the cities," writes Kaye. "Norma cries when she meets a family who is living in a tent with no heat and winter is approaching."
When the Vernal Rotary Club members asked how they could offer help, Jurado's response was passionate and heartfelt. "Each one of you has the power to help, also your social circles, your neighbors … each heart has to decide what they can bring."