Reservations are due Friday, October 31 for the 2014 Charlie Smith Award Banquet. Hosted by Access Press, the banquet honors Minnesotans who provide outstanding service to Minnesota’s disability community.
This year’s Charlie Smith Award winners are Christine Marble and Wendy DeVore, founders of St. Paul-based Career Ventures, Inc. Please attend and honor their work with and for people with disabilities. All of this year’s nominees will be honored with a special display.
The banquet is Friday, November 7 at the Minneapolis Airport Marriott, 2020 East American Blvd., Bloomington. Tickets can be purchased at the door but purchasing beforehand can provide savings of as much as $35 for an eight-person table. It can also ensure that groups can sit together.
Advance tickets are $45 per person or $325 for an eight-person table. That fee increases to $50 per person the day of the event.
Tickets can be purchased online, at Another option is to mail checks to Access Press, Attn: Dawn, 161 St. Anthony Ave. Suite 910, St. Paul, 55103. A third option is to call the office and do the transaction over the phone, at 651-644-2133. Specify dinner choices when registering. This year’s options are Tuscan chicken, slow-roasted beef or vegetarian entrees. The full course, sit-down dinner includes dessert, coffee and water. Dinner and the award ceremony are at 7 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the start of the popular silent auction and pick-your-prize raffle. Many nice donations have come in including gift cards, tickets, paintings, photos, a luxury bath basket and a mini-iPad and Surface. More donations are needed.
Donations for the silent and auction and raffle must be received at the office by 5 p.m. Friday, October 31, so there is time to prepare bid sheets. Call 651-644-2133 if there are questions or if a donation is coming. Items cannot be brought the night of the banquet.
A cash bar and social time, with music, are offered before the banquet and dinner. The Access Press, documentary on Disability and the Media, The RealStory, will be shown on a continuous feed. DVDs of the documentary will be for sale.
The deadline to be a banquet sponsor has passed but there is still time to be a table host. Please contact Dawn at 651-644-2133 or dawn@testing.accesspress.org if there are questions able table hosting or silent auction and raffle donations.
2014 banquet sponsors are Editor-in-chief: Allina Health/Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, Axis Healthcare, IMED Mobility, In Home Health Care, National Handicapped Housing Institute (NHHI) and Medica. Handi Medical and True Friends are sponsors at the Proofreader level and Tamarack Habilitation Technologies Inc. is a Keyliner sponsor.
