Pacific Palisades Community Council Announces Annual Award Recipients

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Pacific Palisades Community Council has revealed the six recipients of Citizen of the Year, Golden Sparkplug and Pride of the Palisades honors, who will be celebrated at this year’s Awards Dinner & Holiday Gala on December 8.

“We are proud to be able to recognize, honor and thank so many wonderful people in the community year after year, who lend their time and talent so freely to the betterment of this wonderful community,” PPCC shared in a statement. “We are lucky to have such remarkable honorees receiving the Citizen of the Year, the Golden Sparkplugs and the Pride of the Palisades awards this year.”

The 2022 Citizen of the Year is Scoutmaster Mike Lanning, who is being honored for his work resulting in the inclusion of girls into Troop 223—which has helped the troop grow to more than 200 active participants. Troop 223 G is recognized as the second largest girls troop in the nation.

“Mike has provided extraordinary contributions in service to the youth of Pacific Palisades,” according to PPCC. “For more than 70 years, Mike has been the scoutmaster of Troop 223 in Pacific Palisades.”

Four Golden Sparkplug awards will be given out at the ceremony to Hazel Tate, Jim Cragg, Cindy Simon and Tracey Price.

Tate will be awarded for her “outstanding efforts in coordinating the Pacific Palisades ‘Sunday Sackers’ program,” which includes Palisadians of all ages who gather at Tate’s house each Sunday to craft sack lunches to distribute via the Hollywood Food Coalition.

For his “outstanding work on highlighting the importance of community safety programs,” Cragg will receive a Golden Sparkplug after spearheading a campaign to send out informational postcards to each home in the Palisades during a six-month public safety project.

Simon and Price have been named Golden Sparkplugs for their joint effort to enhance the Simon Meadow Winding Way natural trail—a quarter-mile walking path that reaches behind Winding Way and curves along the hillside.

The Pacific Palisades Historical Society Centennial Celebration Committee, led by Chairperson Donna Vaccarino with committee members Barbara Kohn, Randy Young, Harris Smith and Bill Bruns, has been named this year’s Pride of the Palisades.

“The celebration was a year-long community love-fest to honor the January 15, 1922, founding of Pacific Palisades,” PPCC wrote. “The committee worked tirelessly to produce an impressive program held on May 7, 2022, at Simon Meadow in Temescal Canyon, the site where the original founders of our town gathered to create the vision of Pacific Palisades.”

After one year of hiatus in 2020 and one year of a hybrid, in-person/virtual event in 2021, the Holiday Dinner & Awards Gala will return to an in-person celebration this year on December 8 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Cheadle Hall at Temescal Gateway Park.

“PPCC is happy to be hosting the Holiday Dinner & Awards Gala in person again,” according to information shared by the organization.

This year’s recipients were named by PPCC’s Awards Selection Committee. Those who wish to attend the event are encouraged to register soon, as space as limited.

For more information or to purchase a ticket, visit pacpalicc.org.