The Alonzo Awards — Developing San Diego’s Future

Story and Photos by Margo Schwab

The 48th Annual Alonzo Awards took place at the snazzy new Hilton San Diego Bayfront. With a veritable who’s who of attendees and honorees, the night’s reception bustled with enthusiasm about Downtown San Diego’s future.
The buzz was all with the common mission to forge and strengthen the business, residential and cultural environment Downtown.
As such there were some big honorees receiving their awards during dinner.
The 2010 Alonzo Award honors and honorees are: the Chairman’s Award  to Robin Munro; the Alonzo Award of Excellence to Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher; the Founder’s Award to James Dawe; the Distinguished Alonzo  to the San Diego Symphony; the Sustainable Business Practices Award to the San Diego Convention Center Corp.; the Vic Kops Humanitarian Award to St. Vincent De Paul Village; the President’s Award to Sheri Snead; an Alonzo Award  to Channel 4 San Diego; an Alonzo Award to Procopio Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP; an Alonzo Award to the San Diego Public Library Foundation; an Alonzo Award to the Ten Fifty B Street, Affirmed Housing Group; and an Alonzo Award to the San Diego Chargers, 50th Anniversary Block Party.
Among the attendees were Jay Hill, CEO of the San Diego Library Foundation, Bob Morris of Scripps Health, Frank Urtasun, director of community relations for SDG&E, A.G. Spanos of the Spanos/Charger’s family, Beth Binger of BCIpr and Scott Maloni, chairman of the Downtown San Diego Partnership.
Said Maloni: “With nearly 500 of the region’s business and community leaders in attendance, this event was one of the best Alonzo Awards to date. I would also like to congratulate all the winners and thank them for their contributions to Downtown San Diego.”
Beth Binger agreed and added this: “The Alonzo Awards are a great way to celebrate the success of our Downtown, and to congratulate those individuals and organizations who have made it thrive! It’s one of the most gratifying and fun events of the year.”
“It was wonderful to see the accomplishments of the Library Foundation’s dedicated volunteers recognized,” said Jay Hill. “These leaders have worked so diligently to ensure that all San Diegans have access to needed literacy and learning resources, including a New Central Library worthy of America’s Finest City.”
Downtown is getting reliable “energy support” revealed SDG&E’s Frank Urtasun. “As a long-time partner of the San Diego Downtown Partnership, Sempra Energy is proud to have once again sponsored this year’s Alonzo Awards, which recognizes San Diegans who are making a positive difference in our community.”
And with people “charged” up about Downtown, Mark Fabiani, special counsel to San Diego Chargers President Dean Spanos, had this to say: “The Chargers family is pleased to be an official sponsor of the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Alonzo Awards. A healthy, thriving business community in San Diego is critical to the Chargers and all San Diegans. Our team thanks and congratulates all of this year’s honorees for their efforts to improve the quality of life in San Diego.”
Bottom line, the Downtown San Diego Partnership is working to “develop strategies, shape public policy and implement programs that strengthen the business climate and quality of life in Downtown San Diego.”
The Alonzo Awards are named after Alonzo Horton, who came to San Diego in 1867. After purchasing 960 acres of bayfront land for a whopping 27.5 cents an acre, Horton had the foresight to start laying out the seeds of a great city, built with easy access to shipping, a new railroad a new future.
To learn more about the Downtown San Diego Partnership, visit downtownsandiego.org.
To view more coverage of this event and other San Diego charitable events,
visit thesocialdiary.com. To request coverage of your event, e-mail to: mschwab@san.rr.com.

Margo Schwab is founder of The SocialDiary.com. To view more coverage of this event and other San Diego charitable events, visit thesocialdiary.com.