Hall of Fame adds new members

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- A business, a businessman and a nonprofit group were

added to the Costa Mesa Hall of Fame on Friday.

The annual Hall of Fame Awards, held by the Costa Mesa Chamber of

Commerce and South Coast Metro Alliance, are set up to recognize

businesses that contribute to the community in lieu of the man and woman

of the year awards that it replaced last year.

James Phillips, director of Zurich Scudder Investments, Inc., won the

Individual Achievement Award.

“One thing I noted was that getting involved is as easy as raising

your hand,” Phillips said at the awards ceremony. “Along the way a lot of

work gets done. It’s exciting because as part of that work, you can

change the world or one kid’s life, which I can tell you is very

exciting.”

He said he is only one of many people working for various good causes

in the community.

“A lot of people are doing really great work,” he said. “I enjoy it,

I’m involved in many areas, but I’m really very humbled by the

recognition.”

Phillips is a member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council, a

trustee of Arts Orange County, Orange County Museum of Art, a board

member of the St. Joseph Hospital Foundation, and an active member of the

Orange County United Way, UC Irvine Graduate School of Management, Sacred

Heart Retreat Center, South Coast Repertory Theater and the Orange County

Performing Arts Center.

Share Our Selves, a Costa Mesa nonprofit group that provides food,

clothing, emergency financial assistance, housing, transportation,

prescriptions and children’s assistance for the needy and the working

poor, won the Community Spirit Award.

“It’s not me, not [Jean Forbath, founder of SOS,] not SOS, but all of

you we are celebrating here,” said Karen McGlinn, executive director of

the group. “This is an honor for the thousands of volunteers that have

dedicated thousands of hours.”

Forbath also attended the event.

“It’s been said that we are magnets,” she said. “Isn’t it wonderful we

are magnets for people like you.”

CarrAmerica Realty Corporation won the Corporate Leadership Award.

The corporation collected more than 2,000 pounds of food -- about

4,000 meals -- for the Second Harvest Food Bank, which delivers the food

to needy Orange County homes through shelters, churches and projects;

raised $1,700 for Casita De San Jose, which attempts to help abused

children and their families; organizes Christmas in April, an annual

event to restore and refurbish a home for a low-income person, an elderly

or a disabled person; and raised enough money to provide food, clothes,

new bicycles and toys for needy children of a single mother at Christmas

last year.

“As a customer of CarrAmerica, I can tell you they have been

professional in dealing with our company, advancing the growth of Costa

Mesa and Orange County through leadership in the community and and

sacrificing their time,” said Dave Petratis, president of MGE UPS

Systems. “Their team of volunteers have given countless hours to this

community.”