The Valley Women’s Club is delighted to announce Paul Norcutt and Janinne Chadwick as the 2019 recipients of the Hammer-Marcum Award for Outstanding Community Service. The biannual award was inaugurated in 1987 and is given for at least five years of work to benefit the SLV community.

Long before he retired as an analyst in Silicon Valley, Paul Norcutt was active in a wide variety of environmental projects. Paul’s extensive in-depth research has provided significant support for work to safeguard air and water quality, to prevent overdevelopment, to protect the Felton Meadow, to determine that PG&E is liable for the loss in property value when it removes trees, and much more. Sharing his findings with other organizations helps build the political “push” needed to empower our government entities to do the right thing.

Paul is also a talented photographer whose images are used in the various campaigns for environmental protection that he has been involved in over the years; they give visual meaning to the reasons for his work, truly pictures worth a thousand words!

Both of this year’s Hammer-Marcum awardees express passion for their chosen fields by fusing their art with the depth of detail required to transcend the ordinary.

Janinne Chadwick

Janinne Chadwick has been at the helm of the highly successful Little People’s Repertory Theater (LPRT) in Ben Lomond for the last 19 years. As both Executive Director and Artistic Director, Janinne also writes each year’s original rock musical that cleverly includes parodies of classic rock and pop songs and performers. One might call her productions “madcap musical mash-ups with messages”!

“Pinocchio – A Bot-Treemian Rhapsody,” this summer’s production, combined the concerns of pollution, overproduction, laziness, and greed with the classic Pinocchio story of the difficult journey to becoming a real person. Though, in Chadwick’s version, Pinocchio can become “real” through taking responsibility and protecting the environment.

Under Janinne’s direction, LPRT is the most affordable children’s theater program in Santa Cruz County. The non-profit summer program trains performers 8 to 14 years old to perform in the main cast, with a Junior Player’s program for 3 to 8-year-olds. The paid Teen Mentorship Program brings back many former participants to continue learning leadership skills. Approximately 70 children perform in the production, which becomes a memorable family affair as parents, siblings, and friends and neighbors all participate in collaborating on spectacular high-quality theater experience.

The Hammer-Marcum Awards will be presented on October 27, 2019, 11:30 am–2:30 pm at the Highlands Park Senior Center. You’re invited to join the celebration which features a light lunch, desserts, beverages, and live music. $20 door. For more info, contact Sheila De Lany at (831) 429-9641 or email: info@laurelb14.sg-host.com.