Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits announces Visions 2017 honorees
The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits has announced that it will hold its 2017 Visions Awards on Nov. 28 at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. This year, the awards will honor five visionaries for their transformational work in nonprofit leadership, according to a news release from the organization.
The 2017 Visions honorees are Danny Cavett, of Cavett Kids Foundation (Pat Potts Visionary Award); Gene Rainbolt, of BancFirst (Lifetime Achievement Award); Dr. Robert L. Spinks, of Oklahoma City University (President’s Award); Shannon Luper, of Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma (Sarkeys Special Recognition Award); and Toby Jenkins, of Oklahomans for Equality (The Rodney Bivens Innovation Award).
“Visions is an opportunity to honor those individuals in our community who are stepping up to a challenge and getting the job done,” Kelly Sachs, 2017 Visions chairman and president of Commerce Bank said in a news release. “We are thrilled with the individuals chosen this year as visionary leaders who have positively impacted our state and devoted their time, energy and resources to our community.”
Visions began in 2011 to honor the center’s founder, Pat Potts, and her husband, Ray.
Pat Potts Visionary Award honoree Cavett is founder of Cavett Kids Foundation. For more than 20 years, the Cavett Kids Foundation has served Oklahoma children from all across the state after it launched the Cavett Kids summer camps to provide a space without rigid routines of treatment for children battling life-threatening and chronic illnesses. Cavett is a chaplain at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center and saw how children healed emotionally, spiritually and
physically thanks to the work of the camps.
The Sarkeys Special Recognition Award sponsored by the Sarkeys Foundation will honor Luper, program director with Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma. Luper has been with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma since 2003 and oversees a groundbreaking program to ensure daughters of women who are incarcerated have meaningful family experiences and maintain stronger, healthier relationships with their mothers.
Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Rainbolt, of Oklahoma City, is no stranger to nonprofit service, philanthropy and leadership. While he spent a lifetime building banks, he has changed lives and communities through his work in civic engagement as both a business leader and volunteer.
The 2017 Rodney Bivens Innovation Award will honor Jenkins, executive director of Oklahomans for Equality since 2008. Jenkins has been instrumental in both perception and policy changes for the LGBT community Oklahoma and beyond as both a civil rights activist and community leader. The Rodney Bivens Innovation Award carries a special $10,000 grant provided generously by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits has expanded the awards to include a President’s Award chosen by the president and chief executive officer. Spinks has been a longtime leader in Oklahoma City. After a career as an educator, Spinks has worked with the Boy Scouts and United Way of Central Oklahoma and now oversees the Master’s Degree Program in Nonprofit Leadership at Oklahoma City University.