Wow. Our 2014 Awards Celebration: Victory for Healthy Communities, presented by Pacifica Companies, simply knocked the ball out of the park.

With friends, neighbors, allies, fellow advocates, business owners, sponsors and elected officials, we came together on Thursday, April 10, 2014, and had an incredible night of laughter, good food, award presentations and of course, selfies.

Click here to view our full gallery of event photos.

Nearly 300 folks spent their Thursday evening supporting EHC and helping us recognize the incredible work done by our #healthyhoods heroes. These heroes include:

Spirit of Justice Award: Ruth Heifetz, EHC founding board member and senior lecturer at UCSD School of Medicine; For a lifetime of dedication to raising awareness among students, professionals, workers and residents to the hazards of toxic pollution.

Champion Award:

• Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, City of National City councilwoman; For leadership on the Westside Specific Plan, the implementation of phasing out polluting businesses, adding 201 affordable housing units and more.
• Lara Gates, plan update manager at the City of San Diego; For stewardship of the Barrio Logan community plan update, enabling all stakeholders to find a just outcome to neighborhood land-use issues.

Community Award:

• Adriana Alfaro, EHC leader; For years of dedication to improving Old Town National City and tireless work towards achieving environmental justice in the San Diego region.
• Maria Martinez, EHC leader and promotora; For leading and inspiring community members in Barrio Logan to fight for a healthier neighborhood.
• The National City and Barrio Logan Community Action Teams; For standing strong as community leaders in National City and Barrio Logan and organizing and empowering other residents to have a voice in the issues effecting their neighborhood.

Using the hashtag #healthyhoods to capture moments for Twitter and Instagram, our guests helped document the evening one selfie at a time. Cumulatively, EHCSanDiego and friends posted close to 150 tweets during the event and got #healthyhoods trending in San Diego; meaning it was the most talked about Twitter subject in San Diego on the evening of April 10. One lucky social media maven even won an EHC t-shirt for tweeting at EHCSanDiego and hashtagging #healthyhoods throughout the event with photos and clever 140-character-or-less phrases.

Click here to view what all our guests said about #healthyhoods.

Thank you to all our sponsors, including: San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, MAAC, Port of San Diego, the California Endowment, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, the United Food & Commercial Workers Union and Ryan Brothers Coffee.

We can't say thank you enough to everyone who joined us to honor the people making healthy and safe communities a possibility for National City, Barrio Logan and all of San Diego. We are humbled and honored to know and work with all of you. See you next year!