West Oakland Jefferson Award Winner Honored With National Recognition
WASHINGTON D.C. (CBS 5) - One of the Bay Area Jefferson Award winners was honored in Washington, D.C. Tuesday night.
Cloteal Davis, a former teacher and mother of eight, was selected as one of five winners of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Public Service Benefiting the Local Community.
"It's a dream come true," Davis told the crowd at the National Building Museum. "I never realized I would be honored in Washington."
Davis won the local award last August for helping found the West Oakland Health Center to provide much-needed health care to an underserved community.
"At that time I would say health care was just about nonexistent for people in this community," Davis said then.
The West Oakland Health Center has now been meeting the needs of its community for more than 40 years. No one is turned away because of lack of money or health insurance.
Other Onassis Award winners included a Wisconsin couple that founded a community kitchen for families in need and a young woman from Seattle who established an organization to provide necessities to homeless children or those struggling with poverty, ill children, and those affected by drugs.
Other Jefferson Awards were presented in four categories:
Greatest Public Service by an Elected Official - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen - Bill Shore, founder and executive director of Share Our Strength.
Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged - Jerry M. Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls.
Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 and Under - Brittany and Robbie Bergquist, co-founders of Cell Phones for Soldiers.
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