Nancy Butler, Jeannie Carpenter and Jeanna Crawford.

The official 2007 Man and Woman of the Year will be named at the 40th Annual Recognition Dinner to be held Friday, May 4, 2007, in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Valencia Hotel. The event will pay tribute to the top volunteers in Santa Clarita Valley and to past award recipients. It will benefit a number of charities and will include dinner, a multi-media presentation and the recognition ceremony.

Below are the biographies of three volunteers up for the Man and Woman of the Year award. Each one deserves recognition for the work they do. We will feature three nominees every day this week.

13  Nancy Butler

Nancy Butler has been a teacher for the past 24 years, and has become a passionate advocate for the local teaching profession. Now serving as Secretary for Uniserv, the valley-wide teachers union, she represents teachers in the five school districts in Santa Clarita Valley. She devotes her time to negotiate the best environment for her peers, and encourages new teachers to become involved with union matters. Ms. Butler has served as president for the Newhall School District's Teachers' Association for the past three years and with the National Education Association as a state delegate for five years. She has become involved with the Special Olympics, which started through a student in her kindergarten class. Over the last three years, Nancy has coached twice per week, has helped organize Spirit Games each year, has raised funds and chaired volunteers in the annual Golf Tournament, participated in the Torch Run and Tip A'Cop night, and chaperoned for the Summer Special Olympic Games. She also organized a partnership between the Special Olympics and the AT&T Classic. Nancy also volunteers to organize the annual Polar Plunge (but has never had the nerve to participate!). In the school system, Nancy is an active participant of the Parent Teacher Association, the school Site Council, NSAD Fun Run, and has organized First Aid and CPR classes for teachers. She also has her students Adopt-a-Soldier and organizes projects for the Women and Children's Abused and Battered Shelters. Moreover, Nancy is chair and event manager for the West Ranch High School Boys' Soccer Team Golf Tournament. In the community, Nancy participates and donates for the annual "Walk For Life" and the American Heart Association fundraiser. She volunteers for the Children's Hospital Susan B. Komen Cancer organization, Children's Cancer Society, local Sheriff's Relief Fund, Veterans of America, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Survivors of Fallen Firefighters and the Castaic Chamber of Commerce.

14  Jeannie Carpenter

Jeannie Carpenter has been a volunteer helping numerous organizations in the Santa Clarita Valley. She is nominated by the Assistance League of Santa Clarita, whom she has served for four years, chairing the Family Ties Project, organizing monthly home-cooked meals for the Santa Clarita Convalescent Hospital. She is also active with the Footsteps 5K Race committee, and spends many hours with Operation School Bell, and Remember 9/11 Philanthropic Projects. She provides financial support to the Assistance League projects. She has also been serving the Betty Ferguson Foundation for four years. She is a member if their Leadership Team, and helps coordinate the workshops for the youth group, supporting two fundraising events, "Vine-2-Wine" and "Woman of Honor Dinner", and organizes workshops for women. She has served on the board of the William S. Hart Baseball and Softball teams. She was a Peachland School PTA Board Member, and has volunteered at the SCV Senior Center, Carousel Ranch, SCV Youth Symphony, Old Town Newhall Association, McGrath Elementary School, the Girls Scouts, Loose Goose Wine Festival, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She participated in the 2001 Avon Three-Day Breast Cancer Walk, and has contributed to the Newhall Educators Fund, the Boys & Girls Club, and the SCV Committee on Aging wine event,

15  Jeanna Crawford

Jeanna Crawford, who is president and co-publisher of Inside SCV Magazine, has been devoting most of her young life to helping people in the Santa Clarita Valley. As a youngster 24 years ago, she single-handedly made all the ornaments for a 12-foot tree at the Second Annual Holiday Home Tour benefiting Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. At Hart High, she used her exceptional singing voice to entertain the elderly at the SCV Senior Center. After a brief career as a hairstylist and a photography model, she started devoting her time to volunteer work in the Santa Clarita Valley. She joined the Betty Ferguson Foundation "Youth with a Voice" program where she served as mentor and director of their teen group and aided their Youth-with-a-Voice program. She was then elected to the Foundation Board. She has served as counselor to teens through the Child & Family Center's "Circle of Care" program. In 2003, Jeanna joined Carousel Ranch, a non-profit group providing equestrian therapy for disabled children.

After assisting at their "Heart of the West" fund-raising dinner in 2003, she became chair of the event in 2004, promising to double the revenue to $100,000 (which she did), then increased that by raising $150,000 in 2005 and $250,000 in 2006! She is again chairing the 2007 event. She does everything to make the event successful – making calls, writing letters, creating auction baskets, sewing tablecloths, and pounding the pavement for donations. This growth has helped Carousel Ranch make the down payment on its first permanent home — a 10-acre ranch in Agua Dulce. Jeanna now serves on the Carousel board and she has taken an active role on the $1.5-million Capital Campaign Committee. She also serves on the Soroptimists board where she chaired the 2004 sell-out fashion show, introducing groundbreaking decor while surpassing their fundraising records.

In 2004, she co-founded "Bras for a Cause," raising $20,000 for local breast cancer initiatives. In that same year, Jeanna chaired the annual Crawford-Fleming Golf Invitational, raising $80,000 for the Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center, and chaired the event again in 2005 and 2006. She chaired the event again in 2005, this time raising $115,000. In 2005 and 2006 she has co-chaired the Boys & Girls Club "Festival of the Trees" which draws 10,000 people and raises $150,000 each year. In 2005 she was awarded the Boys & Girls Club "Volunteer of the Year." She has worked as a committee member for the Child & Family Center's "Taste of the Town" and golf tournament volunteer; the Michael Hoefflin Foundation's "Evening Under the Stars," the Domestic Violence Center's "Mother's Day Fashion Show," the HMNM Health Foundation's "Have a Heart Sweethearts Gala", and All Corked Up's "Wine Festival," benefiting the SCV Senior Center in 2006, and on the Celebrity Waiter committee in 2007. Through her position at Inside SCV Magazine, she gives desperately needed advertising and publicity to many charitable organizations in the SCV. Moreover, over the past two years her magazine has donated over $150,000 in cash and sponsorships to local organizations.