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It takes well-meaning individuals who care enough to take action to create a positive, caring community, winners of the 2008 Tall Tree Awards demonstrated by example Thursday night.

Winners in four categories — outstanding citizen, outstanding professional, outstanding business and outstanding nonprofit organization — spoke about the history of their community involvement to nearly 500 persons at the Crowne Plaza Cabaña hotel in south Palo Alto.

The annual community-wide awards are sponsored by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and Palo Alto Weekly, and co-sponsored by a range of other community-based businesses and organizations.

The 2008 winners are:

• Megan Swezey Fogarty for outstanding citizen for years of leadership and work that includes co-founding the Youth Community Service (YCS) organization that guides young persons into volunteer and even career opportunities. She also was co-chair of the 2005 school parcel tax "Campaign for Excellence" effort, and has served on boards on Palo Alto Community Child Care, El Carmelo PTA, JLS Middle School PTA, Adolescent Counseling Service Mid-Peninsula, YWCA and Partners in School Innovation.

Read Megan Swezey Fogarty's acceptance speech

• Linda Lenoir as outstanding professional, the longtime school nurse for the Palo Alto Unified School District responsible for the health of approximately 10,000 students in 17 schools. But her personal commitment has extended into serving on a broad array of community boards and projects to improve the health and well-being of children and families in the Palo Alto area and beyond.

• The outstanding-business award went to IDEO, recognized nationally as one of the leading consulting firms in creative approaches to business and society. While IDEO is based in downtown Palo Alto it has eight operations across the nation. The award was for IDEO's strong local commitment to "green" efforts, including purchasing 100 percent of its energy from the city's green-energy program and starting a local recycling program that extends to composting.

• The outstanding non-profit award went to Canopy, the volunteer-driven organization dedicated to helping the city and residents care for the approximately 100,000 street trees plus trees on private property that comprise Palo Alto's "urban forest." Canopy recently completed helping East Palo Alto residents and leaders plant 1,000 trees to help beautify the community.

The awards are in their 29th year.

Leading co-sponsors include Borel Private Bank & Trust Company, Garden Court Hotel, Hewlett-Packard Company, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto Sheraton-Westin, Roche Palo Alto, Silicon Valley Business Journal, Stanford Hosptial & Clinics, Stanford Shopping Center and Stanford University.

-- Jay Thorwaldson