September marked a special time for our organization. With hundreds of our supporters, allies, donors, and partners, ACLU of Colorado celebrated 70 years as Colorado’s largest and oldest civil rights organization. “Toward Liberty: 70 years of Action” 也是对社区领袖和组织所做的辛勤工作的庆祝，他们在保护和促进我们州的公民权利和公民自由方面取得了巨大进步. Each year, ACLU of Colorado has honored leaders in transformational change in our communities. The success of our work advancing equity would not be possible without the dedication of these visionary leaders.
Meet our 2022 honorees:
Elizabeth Wang of Loevy & Loevy, and Timothy Macdonald, Matthew Douglas, Diana Sterk, Ed Aro, and the rest of the Arnold & Porter LLP team
如果没有科罗拉多州两组律师的辛勤工作，第一起代表抗议乔治·弗洛伊德谋杀案的活动人士进行审判的诉讼就不可能做出具有里程碑意义的裁决. Elizabeth Wang of Loevy & Loevy and Timothy Macdonald, Matthew Douglas, Diana Sterk, Ed Aro, and the Arnold & 波特律师事务所团队被授予爱德华·谢尔曼奖，因为他们代表丹佛十几名抗议者进行斗争，这些抗议者的公民权利受到丹佛警方的侵犯。. 陪审团判给在1983年民事权利诉讼中代表的抗议者1400万美元，指控DPD对抗议者非法使用武力，违反了抗议者的第一修正案权利.
Vic Vela
A veteran journalist in Colorado, Vic Vela, was honored with our Larry Tajiri Award for his honesty and compassion in sharing stories of substance use and recovery. Vela, who is currently a news host and reporter for Colorado Public Radio (CPR), has been a journalist for more than 20 years. While working with CPR, Vela launched the podcast, Back from Broken, where he’s been vulnerable and transparent about his experience in recovery from addiction. In the podcast, Vela and his guests share their stories of recovery to portray the resilience and courage people in recovery share. Vela is working to shift the discourse of substance use in news coverage.
Harm Reduction Action Center
The Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC) is a safe place for thousands of people in the Denver metro area. The team at HRAC was recognized with the Ralph L. Carr Award for their work educating, empowering, and advocating for the health and dignity of Denver’s community members through syringe access, overdose prevention, health testing, and more. In the last 10 years, the center has served more than 12,000 people. Each morning, they provide health services to up to 125 people. The center offers a syringe access program, health education classes, and community engagement programming. The volunteer-led team has helped pass legislation and implement policy changes on the state and city levels.
Senator Pete Lee
During his eight years serving in Colorado’s legislature, Senator Pete Lee led transformative work advancing criminal justice reform and restorative justice. He was honored with the Carle Whitehead Memorial Award for his work. In his tenure, Senator Lee sponsored nearly 80 bills involving juvenile justice reform, including behavioral health and mental health bills. 参议员李说，他的目标一直是专注于恢复性司法，帮助低级罪犯获得修复治疗项目，而不是面临监禁. This type of legislation has seen incredible success rates – in thousands of cases to date, 95 to 97 percent of juveniles succeed in restorative justice programs.[1]
Dan Recht
For his enduring dedication to the ACLU of Colorado, 退休律师Dan Recht因30多年来对我们组织的杰出服务而被授予Martha Radetsky奖. Recht got involved with the ACLU in the 1980s when he was a public defender. During his volunteer time with our organization, he served on the Board of Directors for more than 20 years and was the chair of the board for four of those years. He also served on the ACLU’s legal panel for 20 years and was chair of the legal panel for 15 of those years.
Save the date for our next Toward Liberty celebration in September 2023.
你们将见到新的获奖者，他们为保护和促进所有科罗拉多人的公民权利和公民自由做出了杰出的工作.
[1]http://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/point-case-is-clear-expand-restorative-justice/article_6315d4d8-5c81-11eb-a323-5b77d0794c83.html