Planned Parenthood Celebrates

It was a star-studded event, opened by Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning actor and PPFA Board of Advocates (BOA) member Stanley Tucci, who joked, “Imagine if our government told men how and when they could take Viagra.” Golden Globe Award-nominee and BOA member Lauren Graham, from the television series Gilmore Girls, took the stage later that evening, saying, “I have felt called to this organization,” and recounted her first acting gig — a Planned Parenthood informational video, when she was just 16.  Neil Patrick Harris, star of the CBS hit series How I Met Your Mother, also co-hosted, introducing one of the evening’s honorees.

Planned Parenthood honored its own with the Ruth Green Award, presented to an affiliate chief executive chosen by peers for outstanding leadership with boards and volunteers in planning, public affairs, and fundraising.  This year’s winner, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut President/CEO Judy Tabar, spoke not only about her own evolution into a leader but also the importance of the next generation of leaders.  “This is our job as Planned Parenthood leaders — we must create opportunities and we must get out of the way.”

The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa, mayor of the City of Los Angeles, was honored with the Planned Parenthood Hero Award, for his support of Planned Parenthood’s mission and contribution to the defeat in November of Prop 85, a parental notification measure that endangered the health of teens in California.

The Grove Family, represented by Andy Grove, former CEO and chairman of the board of Intel Corporation, his wife Eva, daughter Karen, and granddaughter Sarah, received the “Walk the Talk” Award for their intergenerational activism and generous support of Planned Parenthood. 

Working Assets received the Corporate Leadership Award for generating phenomenal funding for progressive nonprofits — $50 million since its founding in 1985, including $1.6 million for Planned Parenthood.  The company’s mission is to provide consumers with easy ways to support worthwhile causes every time they use Working Assets’ services.  Laura Scher, CEO and founder, accepted the award on behalf of Working Assets, and led the crowd in an act of techno-activism — using their cell phones to text their support for emergency contraception (EC) to Wal-Mart, which does not protect women’s access to EC in-store, without discrimination or delay.

But the night’s highest honor — the prestigious PPFA Margaret Sanger Award — went to legendary social activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, Dolores Huerta, for her life’s work advancing women’s rights.  She helped close the event with a rousing round of a United Farm Workers motto:  Si se puede.  Yes we can.