To Life Annual Benefit

Elizabeth Dearborn Hughes, 2020 Loebenberg Humanitarian Award honoree, a Tampa Bay native, is the CEO and Co-founder of The Akilah Institute for Women, a college with campuses in Rwanda and Burundi that connect young women to economic opportunity. Elizabeth learned of the Rwanda genocide while a student at Berkeley Prep in Tampa and upon her 2006 college graduation, she moved to Rwanda. In 2010, Elizabeth and her husband Dave founded The Akilah Institute in Rwanda to provide education and career development to promising young female leaders. www.akilahinstitute.org

Sir Nicholas Winton, 2020 Loebenberg Humanitarian Award honoree, quietly organized the rescue of 669 Czech children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia before World War II. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain, Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. His work went unnoticed by the world for over 50 years, until 1988 when he was invited to the BBC television program, That’s Life, where he was reunited with several of the children that he had saved. He died in 2015 at the age of 106. His son, Nicholas Winton, Jr., will be accepting the award on behalf of his father. www.powerofgood.net/story.php

Claire Sarnowski, 2020 Legacy Award honoree, met Holocaust Survivor Alter Weiner as a fourth-grade student in the Oregon Public Schools. Alter spoke to her class about surviving five different concentration camps and losing most of his family. Following his presentation, Claire forged a special friendship with Alter, learning of his lifelong dream to implement mandatory curriculum standards for teaching students about the Holocaust and other genocides. Claire, as a high school freshman, reached out to her state senator who sponsored the bill. Because of Claire’s advocacy and persistence, the bill became law in June 2019 requiring that all Oregon students receive Holocaust education.
www.pamplinmedia.com/lor/108-education/437630-349291-ms-sarnowski-goes-to-washington