Juanita Haugen Community Service Awards Announced

Pleasanton’s Community of Character Collaborative has named Greg Thome, JoAnn Weser, Bill Rudolph and the Alan Hu Foundation as its 2026 Juanita Haugen Award recipients. (patch.com) The group said the awards recognize service rooted in six traits it promotes in Pleasanton: responsibility, compassion, self-discipline, honesty, respect and integrity. (patch.com) (communityofcharacter.org) The recipients will be honored Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at an 11:30 a.m. awards luncheon at the Pleasanton Veterans Building. Tickets are listed at $45, and the event is open to the community. (patch.com) (business.pleasanton.org) The same luncheon will also recognize 14 Pleasanton Unified School District seniors receiving Juanita Haugen Memorial Scholarships. The students named this year are Aashvi Geddam, Advaith Anand, Andy Morales, Anna Star Kim, Bruce Wallace, Chloe Grijalva, Diego Laredo, Emilio Bernard, Kyle Farren-Bowen, Lucie Apard, Marian McConologue, Marielle Bernard, Philippa Haney and Smriti Mehta. (patch.com) The award is named for Juanita Haugen, a longtime Pleasanton Unified School District board member and community volunteer who helped found Pleasanton’s Community of Character program. The organization says the awards program began in 2008. (patch.com) (communityofcharacter.org) This year is the 17th annual Juanita Haugen awards cycle, according to the collaborative’s nomination notice published in March. Nominees can be Pleasanton residents, non-residents or nonprofit groups if their volunteer work is carried out in Pleasanton. (patch.com) The announcement highlighted Greg Thome’s record first. It said his service spans more than 40 years, including Catholic Youth Organization coaching and administration, launching a girls basketball division, and nearly 20 years coordinating referees for the Special Olympics basketball tournament. (patch.com) (business.pleasanton.org) The Alan Hu Foundation has also been honored repeatedly in Pleasanton civic circles for mental-health advocacy and community service. The foundation says it was named a 2025 California Nonprofit of the Year by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan after earlier local service awards. (alanhufoundation.org) (mad4p.org) The May 13 luncheon is set up as both an awards ceremony and a scholarship fundraiser. The event page says donations tied to the luncheon go to the Juanita Haugen scholarship fund. (app.auctria.com) In Pleasanton, the Juanita Haugen awards have become a yearly way to connect volunteer recognition with student scholarships under the same Community of Character banner. This year’s ceremony keeps that structure in place. (app.auctria.com) (communityofcharacter.org)