Community Leadership Awards: A night of inspiration

Jeff Henderson was a bright youngster who grew up in the inner cities of Los Angeles and San Diego. By the time he was 19, he had parlayed his natural business talents into a $35,000-a-week drug-selling operation.

Five years later, he was sentenced to prison for 10 years.

While incarcerated, Mr. Henderson discovered his passion for cooking, with the help of a mentor. After his release from prison, other mentors recognized his talent and tenacity, and helped him rise from dishwasher to the first African-American chef de cuisine at Caesar’s Palace — within four years.

During the following 10 years, Mr. Henderson rose to fame as a best-selling author and host of his own Food Network television show, “The Chef Jeff Project.” In the show, which he describes as a “culinary and life skills boot camp,” he serves as a mentor to at-risk young adults, training them in the food industry and providing them with their own second chances in life.

EXTENDING A HAND

Mr. Henderson told his story of how he was helped by mentors — and how he now extends his hand to others — at the fifth annual Community Leadership Awards dinner held Sept. 14 in New York. More than 500 executives from nearly 60 financial organizations attended the event.

Sponsored by InvestmentNews and the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation, the awards were presented to those in the financial advisory industry for their efforts to help those less fortunate in the United States and abroad.

Five honorees and 10 finalists were honored in five categories: Volunteer of the Year, Volunteer Team of the Year, Mentoring Excellence, Community Service and Global Community Impact.

The honorees ranged from Michael Curran, who was the guiding force behind building an aquatic center in Cary, N.C., where children from low-income families are taught to swim, to Gary Polstra, who serves on the board of a medical mission that provides free health care to 3,000 rural residents in Guatemala every year. (See profiles of all the honorees and finalists in this section.)

The foundation had planned to present $10,000 checks to the charities of the five honorees and $1,500 to the charities of the finalists. But at the event, foundation president Kandis Bates announced that the donations had been raised to $20,000 and $5,000, respectively.

“It has been humbling for me to see what the foundation has been able to do to support these advisers and their charities,” Ms. Bates said. “It’s been remarkable to see how they are such a fabric of their communities. They’re changing lives, one community at a time.”

“These finalists have helped me to redefine what makes people successful,” said Suzanne Siracuse, InvestmentNews’ publisher. “A lot of times, people are judged by the amount of money they make. But there’s an inner light that shines from these honorees when they talk about their charities. They personally inspire me to focus on my own charitable interests.”