$36,000 teen Tikkun Olam Award nominations due

Do-gooder teens can reap some benefit for their hard work through the fifth annual Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award. The award, established by the San Francisco-based Helen Diller Family Foundation and associated with the Bay Area Jewish Community Federation, recognizes California teens who have demonstrated active commitment to social action. Five winners receive $36,000 each, to be used as the teen sees fit.

Last year’s Los Angeles-area winners include Megan Kilroy, founder of Team Marine, a group based at Santa Monica High School that travels the state teaching kids and adults about how careless actions such as littering impact the oceans and the environment. She has traveled to Sacramento dressed in a suit covered with bottle caps to lobby state lawmakers.

David Weingarten of Woodland Hills helped bring three Jewish teens from the Abayudaya of Uganda to a West Coast United Synagogue Youth teen conference, and then later raised funds to help create the first Abayudaya youth convention in Uganda, which he and a handful of other American USYers attended with 200 Jewish teens from Uganda and Kenya.  The partnership he founded has become the USY/Abayudaya Partnership to help create the next generation of Jewish leadership among the Abayudaya.

Qualifying teens must be California residents between the ages of 13 and 19 who self-identify as Jews, though their work can benefit anyone. Teachers, rabbis or community leaders — but not family members — can nominate the teens. Teens can also nominate themselves. Nominations are due Dec. 17. For more information, visit