Philadelphia DoGooder Awards

The Philly DoGooder Awards were held last night at the University of the Arts’ Hamilton Hall. The DoGooder campaign was designed to promote skills-based volunteering and bring Philadelphians together to benefit local nonprofits. Hosted by Here’s My Chance and presented by Wells Fargo, the event announced the winning nonprofits of the video contest, and honored three Philadelphians (including me!) with innovation awards that were presented by Mayor Michael Nutter. Pictured: Kevin Colahan, Here’s My Chance; HughE Dillon, Philly Chit Chat, honored for Innovation in Community Building; Leah Kauffman, executive producer of Philly.com, honored for Innovation in Storytelling; Desiree Peterkin-Bell, from the city’s communications office, honored for Innovation in Urban Mechanics; and David Gloss, Here’s My Chance. [Photo Credit: Ian Michael Crumm]

Below: The masters of ceremonies for the evening were 6 ABC’s Melissa Magee and Kenneth Moton.

Winners included:
Best Overall Video by a Nonprofit: Working Film Establishment
Viewers Choice Video by a Nonprofit
First Place: Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation
Second Place: New Leash on Life USA
Third Place: Diversified Community Services, Western Learning Center
Best Hackathon Video by a Nonprofit: PathwaysPA

Below: Heather Wertz, Jill Michal and Ashley Brindisi, from United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Speaking of doing good, the United Way of Greater Philadelphia just launched a 2-1-1 hotline for the five-county Philadelphia area, which people can call for info on social services.

Below: Sophie Tran, contributor at Philly Tech Meetup, and Antonio Bryant.

Below: Jeanette Burns Arthur and Meghan Mallouk, from Fairmount Park Conservancy.

Below: Joey Roberts, Lexie Norcross, Philly.com, Leah Kauffman, Philly.com, and Janis Kauffman.

Below: Jim Colahan, Cathy Colahan, Jennifer Colahan, Nicole Colahan and Kevin Colahan.

Below: Peter Dello Buono, A.D. Amorosi, and Toby St. James.

Below: Luke Butler, Kate Hagedorn, Story Bellows, Desiree Peterkin-Bell, all from City of Philadelphia, and Brian Bell.

Below: Joe Zajaczkowski, Allied Construction Services, Eleanor Murdoch, Doug Zajaczkowski (his film won second place) and Kate O’Neill.

Below: In this pic, I was just surprised with the Innovation in Community Building DoGooder Award! Mayor Nutter explained that I created a new platform for sharing stories from the community, through the lens of my camera and the words on my blog. OK, when he got to the blog word, I had a clue it might be me, but I don’t remember anything else after that … except somehow the Mayor grabbed my camera and took this photo of me with Miss Pennsylvania USA Jessica Billings!

Below: Ben Stango, United Way of Greater Philadelphia, Zack Seward, NewsWorks/WHYY reporter, and Wade Keller, NBC Sports Network.

Below: Matthew Ray, Chatterblast, Lori Braunstein, Delaware Valley Green Building Council, and Brad Molotsky, Brandywine Realty Trust.

Below: DJ Royale (center), with Wadiya Gooden and Mandy Zeilinger, who are with the Vetri Foundation, which was nominated for a DoGooder Award.

Below: Ethan McKinley, National Park Service, Zoe Selzer, GoodCompany Group, and Jeff Gloss.

The event’s Emerging Leaders Awards went to: Erica Hawthorne, Small but Mighty Arts, Michelle Freeman, Flying Kite Media, Anna Aagenes, GO! Athletes, and Christopher Norris, founder of Techbook Online Corp.

Now, according to Dave Gloss and Kevin Colahan, the work begins:

All the winning nonprofits received over $50,000 in skilled resources. The United Way and Generocity.org will begin getting those projects under way in the coming weeks. … We still have some things in the works for the rest of 2013. Our continued coverage of the emerging Philly DoGooders (Anna Aagenes, Michelle Freeman, Erica Hawthorne, Matt Joyce, Eric Norris), a regular video commentary on community issues with Philly.com, communications training and tools for local groups and some fun and random surprises. Our goal is to make Here’s My Chance and Philly DoGooder an instigator of more sustainable social impact throughout the region.

MORE: G Philly has coverage of the DoGooder Awards too.