Not that Buck Kamphausen would ever mock an award he was graciously handed. But even the Vallejo businessman and automobile collector couldn’t help but be playful accepting the Touro “Bull Award” at Thursday night’s Lamplighter Gala & Awards at the Farragut Inn on Mare Island.
“I thought they forgot the other four-letter word that goes with bull,” quipped Kamphausen when called Friday afternoon.
Kamphausen’s association with Touro goes back to it’s beginning in Vallejo when the New York-based university received local accreditation. Kamphausen has also been instrumental in assisting Touro in securing grants.
“I think it’s a blessing to have Touro here in Vallejo,” said Kamphausen. “It’s a medical college that’s expanding rapidly.”
With Touro, Cal-Maritime and Solano Community College Vallejo, “we are blessed to have three schools here which help make me enthused about what can happen to Vallejo. To me, it’s unbelievable.”
While Kamphausen took home the Bull, others were also honored, including: Shiva-Vishnu Temple, Livermore, for “Community Mobilization,” Pastor Scott Peterson for Education, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for Health, Benjamin Abo was handed the Bernard Lander Alumni Award, and The Robby Poblete Foundation was accorded honors in Social Justice Advocacy.
The award “means a lot to me because social justice is about equal access to wealth and opportunities, and we know we are a long way from reaching that type of parity,” Navalta Poblete said, confident that the foundation named after her late son “is not only changing lives, we are saving them. I am committed to advocating for social justice in our community in honor of my son who lost his life to gun violence, and in honor of the most vulnerable in our communities who deserve the same opportunities that you and I have.”
According to the congratulatory letter to Navalta Poblete, The Poblete Foundation “exemplifies outstanding work in fostering diversity and social justice and serves as an example in commitment to measurable change that supports less privileged groups.”
Peterson, pastor at The Hill (formerly Church on the Hill) since 1990, was recognized for leading the immensely popular Vallejo Outreach every summer for almost 25 years.
“It was an honor to be chosen as the first recipient at this inaugural event,” Peterson said.
Keynote speaker at the Thursday night event was Xavier Becerra, California Attorney General.
The Lamplighter is given to an individual or organization that is on the front line of developing best practices in working for community change at the level of policy with the county, region, state, nationally and globally.
Thank you: Times Herald
