Prodigious Volunteer Given Fernando Award

Marcelo “Mike” Quiroga, owner of Mike’s Roofing and Building Corp. in Van Nuys, said he deeply believes in giving to the community. On Sept. 27, he got something in return: He was given the Fernando Award, the San Fernando Valley’s most significant honor for volunteerism. After he was named the recipient (only one person in the room knew the honoree in advance), Quiroga addressed the nearly 250 attending the black-tie event at the Skirball Cultural Center by saying he developed his philanthropic ethos when he was growing up in Bolivia by watching his father volunteer time. He has since passed those sensibilities on to his three children. Quiroga’s efforts in bettering the community are prodigious. He has actively participated in the Greater San Fernando Valley, Encino, Sherman Oaks and North Valley chambers of commerce. He has served on the boards of Valley Village, Therapeutic Living Centers for the Blind, Mid Valley YMCA, Tierra Del Sol and the Mid Valley American Heart Association. And he has donated money and resources to such organizations as ONEgeneration, Van Nuys Rotary, Friends of Van Nuys Airport and New Horizons. He even helps his own employees. He has worked with Los Angeles Mission College and Los Angeles Valley College to offer training programs so his employees can further their education and learn leadership skills. Quiroga was the 61st honoree. The Fernando Award, given annually, has been bestowed on such Valley luminaries as Lee Kanon Alpert, Rickey Gelb, Karl Boeckmann, David Honda and Gloria Pollack. Last year’s winner was Bill Allen, the chief of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. and a founder of the Valley Economic Alliance. Other finalists for the award this year included Steve Fazio, head of Fazio Enterprises, which owns the Fazio Cleaners chain; Jeff Friedman, vice president of marketing at Dynamic Nursing Inc., which has offices in Sherman Oaks and Thousand Oaks; Scott Silverstein, a broker at real estate firm Lee & Associates in Calabasas, and Jane Skeeter, founder and chief executive of UltraGlas Inc. in Chatsworth. “The five finalists are true Valley heroes who inspire everyone one of us,” said Gary Thomas, the 2011 Fernando Award recipient who was given a special award at the recent event. The Fernando Award Foundation also honored companies and individuals with Impact Awards for work on behalf of Valley residents. The honorees were Boston Private Bank & Trust, Los Angeles Daily News, Ronald and Susan Villafana and Patti Jo Wolfson. Staff reporter Michael Aushenker contributed to this article.