Honoring the most ‘Life Changing’ among us
For the first time in almost three years, San Diego Regional EDC will welcome investors, board members, and community partners to our Annual Dinner.
This year’s event—hosted under the night sky at Petco Park—will feel a bit like a family reunion for us, having had so much time pass since we have been able to gather with the region’s broader economic development community to celebrate our work and our relationships. Alongside sponsors who represent an amazing cross-section of our economy and our work, there are two special relationships we will be taking time to recognize on June 9 with the 2022 Life Changing Awards:
The first is The San Diego Foundation. For almost 50 years, The San Diego Foundation has served as our primary community and philanthropic foundation, supporting a wide range of causes and organizations throughout our region. But never has its work been more important or its resources more critical to San Diegans than during the many months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the region’s healthcare systems and public health officials grappled with an unprecedented crisis and managed new and changing regulations, threats, and policies emerging around us, The San Diego Foundation sprang into action, starting the COVID-19 Community Response Fund to get resources directly to those hit hardest by the pandemic—individuals who were out of work, families who needed to put food on the table, elderly residents who were shut off from services and support, and more. The Foundation raised and distributed more than $65 million to more than 250 non-profits and community-based service providers in the first 15 months of the pandemic to help ease the suffering, uncertainty, and fear felt across San Diego.
We will also be recognizing the most visible heroes of the pandemic—our region’s healthcare professionals and systems. For more than two full years, the individuals who work within and lead our hospitals, clinics, medical practices, and healthcare access points throughout the county have supported, treated, and healed countless local and neighboring patients and families.
From testing, to vaccinations, to life-saving care, to mental health and emotional support, and much, much more, words cannot possibly express what we know they have been through nor what they have meant and continue to mean to our community. Thanks, awards, and accolades seem insignificant in the face of true heroism, selflessness, and service. But as an economic development community, we will pause to remember, celebrate, and thank our region’s healthcare professionals for being the very best of who we are through the most difficult times we may ever know.
So please join us for this special evening, in a special place, surrounded by special people, who all play their part in making San Diego the ‘Life Changing’ place we continue to know and love.
Mark
Mark Cafferty
President & CEO