Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards will go this year to Bernadette & Jim McMahon, Pearl and Joel Bailes, and the Reverend Cara Spaccarelli. Each of them has put unique gifts at the service of our neighborhood and our community.
Bernadette and Jim McMahon are model neighborhood volunteers having contributed to a wide range of activities and institutions over their 40 some years on the Hill. Most recently, Jim and Bernadette have provided steady leadership and technical expertise for the Ruth Ann Overbeck Oral History Project, sponsored by the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.
As a fourth grade teacher at Capitol Hill Day School, Pearl Bailes has taught, inspired, encouraged and amused generations of neighborhood children. As part of the Capitol Hillbillies she and Joel have brightened many a Saturday and Sunday afternoon and countless local occasions with lively, foot stompin’ music for all to hear as they visit Eastern Market or stroll down East Capitol Street.
The Reverend Cara Spaccarelli has been rector of Christ Church + Washington Parish for eight years, bringing sparks of new energy and enthusiasm to the oldest Episcopal parish in Washington, DC. Cara and her husband, Michael Lawyer, have two sons who are students at Brent Elementary School. Cara is the third annual Steve Cymrot “Spark” awardee.
These awards will be celebrated at a gala dinner in the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library on Thursday, April 26. For more information about the dinner, which is a fundraiser for the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, contact Dee Seward, 202-547-3742, dee.skip@verizon.net.
