Pasadena Community Foundation Honored With Salvation Army’s “Others” Award

The Salvation Army of Pasadena recently honored Pasadena Community Foundation (PCF) with its 55th Annual “Others” Award. As one of the highest national civic awards that can be given by The Salvation Army, the “Others” Award honors an individual or organization that exemplifies an extraordinary spirit of service to others and to The Salvation Army.

The award recognizes that PCF has shown exceptional support in the last year to The Salvation Army and to the local community in two ways: pledging $350,000 toward the construction of The Salvation Army’s Hope Center, which will provide 65 permanent supportive housing units for those facing homelessness; and helping mitigate the deep impacts of COVID-19.

Honors Hope Center Funding and COVID-19 Response

Major Terry Masango, Corps Officer of the Pasadena Tabernacle, commends PCF as one of the first organizations to pledge funding for the Hope Center. The project was nearly canceled as the pandemic took hold, he explains, but he asked his superiors to give him three months to see if he could secure funding. “I was on vacation and just jumped when I heard that PCF had made such a substantial commitment to the Hope Center campaign. Their support gave the project much-needed momentum, and the Foundation also brought additional funders to the project. We could not be more grateful for this significant help.”

The Salvation Army also received two of PCF’s COVID-19 Response Grants in 2020 totaling $25,000. Masango points out that “as our organization’s need increased five-fold because of the pandemic, PCF’s funding enabled us to increase exponentially our distribution of food and hygiene products to families and individuals.”

Always in Partnership with Others

In her acceptance speech on behalf of PCF, President and CEO Jennifer DeVoll noted that “in everything we do, Pasadena Community Foundation is in partnership with ‘others’— both with generous donors and with effective organizations like The Salvation Army. For each grant we award, we give it careful thought. But every so often, we come across a truly transformative project, and funding it feels great. I believe Hope Center is one of those projects. In an environment in which creating supportive, permanent housing is a huge challenge, the Pasadena Tabernacle of the Salvation Army is getting it done.”

The “Others” Award dates back to 1912, when The Salvation Army’s founder, General William Booth, shortly before his death expressed his loving spirit in a one-word Christmas telegram to his soldiers: “Others.” It was a message of encouragement that would succinctly renew the soldier’s efforts in the service of God and humanity.