Chris Spitz proclaimed Citizen of the Year
By Dolores Quintana
The Pacific Palisades Community Council held its annual awards ceremony on December 9 to honor Palisadians who have contributed to the community in outstanding ways.
The ceremony was held at the Bel Air Bay Club on the lower level. This event was not held in 2020 because of the ongoing pandemic. This year the Council compromised by holding a ceremony that was in-person for award winners and their families, but was broadcast on Zoom to the rest of the community to avoid any potential superspreader events in light of the current rise in cases and the newest variant. Jimmy Dunne, a club member who is one of the previous year’s winners of the Citizen of the Year award, hosted the ceremony.
Nominations for the awards were sent in by Palisades residents in October for Citizen of the Year. The Citizen of the Year must be a person who has had a record of community service and who has recently accomplished a goal that benefits the Pacific Palisades community. The other awards that residents could nominate others for are the Golden Sparkplug awards. This is a prize that honors a Palisadian who has achieved an objective that markedly improved the status of the community. David Kaplan, Sharon Kilbride, Sue Kohn, Mary Mueller and Kevin Niles were the Community Council members who selected the winners from those who were nominated.
Chris Spitz was proclaimed Citizen of the Year and the Golder Sparkplug awards went to Scott Cullen, Rick McGeagh, Matthew Rodman, Ingrid Steinberg and Krishna Thangavelu.
The PPCC Chairman David Card was the master of ceremonies. Madi Rindge, daughter of Mary Mueller, sang two selections to kick off the ceremony: “America The Beautiful” and the Katrina and the Waves hit song, “Walking On Sunshine”. Ms. Rindge is a singer, producer and writer. Chairman Card gave thanks to the committee for the work that they did and, in particular, to Kevin Niles for his work in planning and executing the event. The award winners were each given certificates from Congressman Ted Lieu, State Senator Ben Allen, Assemblymember Richard Bloom, L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer.
