Six residents will be honored this spring by the senior services agency Avenidas with "Lifetimes of Achievement" awards.

The honorees are Anne Warner Cribbs, Peter Carpenter and Jane Shaw Carpenter, Loretta Green, Karen Ross and Roger Smith.

A garden party honoring the six — and serving as Avenidas' major annual fundraiser — will be held on Sunday, May 21, in Palo Alto.

Since 1988, Avenidas has recognized residents who have dedicated their lives to improving the community through volunteer work and philanthropy.

"I am delighted with this incredible group of esteemed honorees," Avenidas President and CEO Amy Yotopoulos said. "For the past 35 years, Lifetimes has recognized devoted individuals and celebrated the contributions they have made throughout their lives. This inspiring selection continues the Avenidas tradition as we thank and congratulate each of them for the important and long-lasting impact they have had on our community."

Cribbs, a graduate of Stanford University, is an award-winning athlete who won a gold medal at the 1959 Pan American Games and swam in the relay team that won a gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960. Locally, she led the Bay Area's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and brought the Senior Games to Palo Alto. In 1995, she co-founded the American Basketball League, the first women's professional basketball league in the nation. Her outstanding athletic achievements have earned her a spot in the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, the Northern California Jewish Hall of Fame and the San Mateo County Hall of Fame.

Green served the community as a longtime journalist who worked for the Palo Alto Times, Peninsula Times Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News, where she became known as "the voice of our community" for her human-interest columns. Her work has won her recognition from The Associated Press, the Peninsula Press Club, the Association of California Newspaper Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists. Her contributions to the community have gone well beyond her work. During her retirement, she has worked for the nonprofit The Links Inc., and as a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley. She has served on the board of directors of the Museum of American Heritage and Stanford University Hospital and has held several roles as a longtime member of the University African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Peter Carpenter and Jane Shaw Carpenter have made significant contributions to the greater community through their pharmaceutical and scientific research and philanthropy.

Jane is the co-inventor of the scopolamine transdermal patch to treat motion sickness. As president and COO at the pharmaceutical company ALZA Corporation, she led the charge in the development of a new class of products and drug-delivery systems. She is widely recognized as an expert in this field, for which she holds seven patents. She has served on the boards of several companies, including McKesson, Yahoo and Intel, as well as a trustee on the board of Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, Grace Cathedral and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Peter, who also worked for ALZA, took the lead on a unique patient consent model for the company's intrauterine device, the only IUD available on the U.S. market at the time. In 1990, he left his executive vice president position to work in nonprofit leadership. He has served on several boards, including the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. He also served as an Air Force aide at the White House and as executive director at Stanford Medical Center. In 1991, he founded the Mission and Values Institute.

As a nutrition and dietetics health professional at local hospitals and at HeartFit for Life cardiac rehabilitation program, Ross has made an impact on patients and caregivers through education on heart-healthy eating. She has served as the national chair of Sports and Cardiovascular Nutritionists, as well as on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Palo Alto Community Fund, Hidden Villa and the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation. She also opened the doors to her home to more than a dozen international Stanford students through the university's Homestay program. As vice chair and board member of the Senior Coordinating Council, Ross was one of the driving forces behind the idea and implementation of the Lifetimes of Achievement program.

During the past five decades that Smith has lived in Palo Alto, he has served as founding president and CEO of a major bank, created multiple nonprofits and volunteered to support numerous causes. After earning an MBA from Santa Clara University, Smith founded Silicon Valley Bank to focus on the banking needs of the emerging tech industry. SVB is now the largest bank in Silicon Valley and the 20th largest bank in the U.S. In 1994, Smith left the bank to launch Smith Venture Group. Smith also founded Friends of Palo Alto Parks and Mothers Against Murder, an advocacy organization for families of murder victims. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Palo Alto Community Fund, where he is now one of five directors emeritus.

The May 21 garden party honoring all six of this year's Lifetimes of Achievement honorees is open to the public. For tickets and more information, go to avenidas.org.