Celebrate the 2010 Dewey Winburne Community Service Honorees

At SXSW Interactive, we strongly believe that new media can (and should!) help level the playing field between the fortunate and less fortunate in our society. Such is the motivation behind the Dewey Winburne Community Service Award, which recognizes 10 Central Texas citizens who have used the power of technology to improve lives locally and around the world. The ten grass-roots honorees for the 2010 Dewey Award are as listed below, with special kudos to Ken Starks of the Helios Project who has gained special recognition for his work in supplying local children with re-furbished computers. These 2010 Dewey Winburne Community Service Honorees were the focal point of a special reception that occurred on Monday evening, March 15 during SXSW Interactive.

Meredith Beal
Since leaving Dell in 2001, Meredith Beal has focused on broadcasting and education, donating web design and video production classes to Huston-Tillotson College and partnering with Teach 1 Entertainment to develop cartoon characters and positive content for children. He was recently named Texas Broadcaster of the Year by the Texas Association of Broadcasters.

Stacy Bouwman
As Operations Director at Skillpoint Alliance, Bouwman has helped develop the Community Technology Training Centers program. In September 2009, Bouwman brought together Skillpoint, Austin Free-Net and the City of Austin to create Austin Connects, a program which leverage mutual resources that allow all Central Texans to participate in the ever-changing digital age.

Sue Cole
At the River City Youth Foundation, Cole serves as coordinator of Technology & HERO Mentoring Services. In this capacity, she helps this organization provide South Austin children a safe place to work on homework, read, eat meals at the foundation and become better prepared to embrace the high-tech future.

Dario "Marty" Martinzez
Martinez is in charge of Technical Support at the Eastside Memorial Global Tech High School. This new institution is the nation's first collaborative effort between the Asia Society and the New Tech Network. Each student at Global Tech is issued a new laptop computer that will facilitate a Project-Based Learning curriculum that is technology rich and emphasizes 21st century skills.

Gordon Montgomery
An advocate for social justice for information design, Gordon Montgomery synthesizes linguistics, usability, information architecture and accessibility issues into well-structured and easy-to-use designs. He has also been very active in geek efforts to assist natural disaster victims (including the recent earthquake in Haiti).

Melanie Moore
As the founder of Badgerdog Literary Publishing, Melanie Moore has created an organization that identifies, acquire, and revive reputable, defunct literary journals in an effort to strengthen the infrastructure of the American literary tradition, fostering the growth of every next generation of writers.

Maria Morrissey
Morrissey founded the Kiva Austin Texas microlending team in September of 2008 as a way to connect with other Austin microlenders and promote microlending through Kiva. Since its creation, Kiva Austin has grown to well over 400 members and ranks #1 for total lending among all Kiva city teams worldwide.

David Neff
Previously employed as the Web and Interactive strategies for the American Cancer Society, David Neff now runs a non-profit (Lights. Camera. Help.) which assists other non profits as they focus on good. In 2009, the American Marketing Association named him the Non Profit Social Media Marketer of the Year.

Ken Starks
As founder and Lead Director of The HeliOS Project, Ken Starks spearheads the effort to gather decommissioned or broken computers and refurbishes them. These computers are then given to Austin-area children who normally would not be able to afford one. To date, The HeliOS Project has placed more than 1000 computers.

Angela-Jo Touza-Medina
Currently Education Services Program Manager at Caritas of Austin, Ángela-Jo Touza-Medina has also participated in several UN initiatives, been a human rights observer, founded a virtual human rights NGO and contracted for the Association for Progressive Communications.

Pictured: Ken Starks