Our President and CEO Gisselle Acevedo made the following remarks upon accepting the award:

“Thank you so much for this recognition of our work.

I think the essence of Para Los Niños can be best captured in a quote by my role model, Marian Wright Edelman: ‘Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.’

The Para Los Niños approach to leaving our community better than we found it is by supporting healthy children and families.

We put education at the center of our efforts to break the cycle of poverty, while recognizing that children who live in a constant state of physical, psychological, and emotional risk have different educational requirements than those whose most basic needs are routinely met.

We integrate high-quality education with the family support and mental health services that children living in poverty need if they are to achieve long-term academic success and social well-being.

This does not, of course, happen without the hard work, commitment, and compassion of hundreds of staff, who are my personal heroes.

Joining me this evening are several teachers from the Para Los Niños Charter School, and two of our early education centers. Friends, please stand.

Our educators are truly heroic. They are brave, daring, and courageous. They are nurturing, creative, and set high expectations. They are idealistic and simultaneously pragmatic, and they are making the difference between success and failure for our young students.

I am honored to work with these extraordinary people every day.

Humorist Will Rogers once said, ‘We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.’ So, I am going to now sit down and clap for the teachers of Para Los Niños and all the Unsung Heroes of 2011!

Thank you.”

For more information and to view pictures and video footage from the ceremony, visit www.calfund.org/unsungheroes.