Photos courtesy of Anna Longworth.

With a sell-out crowd, this year’s Social Justice Awards Gala was an unqualified success. Members of the community and students alike gathered to help the McKinley Foundation honor just a few of the many people from Champaign County who make a difference both here at home and across the nation. This year’s winners were:

• Kathleen Hu, a U of I engineering student who started an organization called Dibbs, using technology to connect grocery stores’ surplus food for donations to local food agencies;
• YouMatter Studios, a company founded by Jewel Ifeguni to develop video games that celebrate diversity and inclusivity;
• Danielle Chynoweth who, for 23 years, has been an institution builder for social and racial justice in the C-U community; and
• Faith in Place, a nonprofit organization that brings together social and environmental justice working with houses of faith across the state.

Other notable guests at the gala included University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen; his wife, noted geophysicist, Roberta Johnson Killeen; Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen; and Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin.

Thank you to everyone one who came together to make the evening a memorable one!