Volunteer at Silver SPUR

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Through research, education and advocacy, SPUR promotes good planning and good government in the San Francisco Bay Area. Every year we host the Silver SPUR Awards Luncheon which hosts 1500 attendees in celebrating civic leaders for their significant lifetime acheivement.

This year's honorees are:

Nínive Calegari is the CEO of both Enterprise for Youth, where she trains and employs youth, and the Teacher Salary Project. Together with Dave Eggers she cofounded 826 Valencia, which she helped grow from a local tutoring program into an influential education phenomenon that partners with schools, families and community organizations across the country. Nínive is coauthor of the best-selling book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers and co-producer of the documentary film American Teacher, narrated by Matt Damon

Charles M. Collinsis president and CEO of the YMCA of San Francisco. He has worked in law, city planning and real estate development, and is the author of The African Americans and senior editor of A Day in the Life of Africa.Chuck was deputy secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency for the State of California. He directed a comprehensive study incorporating economic and fiscal considerations, land use planning, transportation systems and housing requirements resulting in the Downtown Plan for San Francisco.

Jane Graf is president and CEO of Mercy Housing, one of the nation’s largest affordable housing organizations. She has worked for Mercy since 1993, first expanding its portfolio to include supportive housing for formerly homeless people. Jane presided over three organizational mergers that expanded Mercy’s reach statewide and greatly increased its affordable housing portfolio. She also developed one of the first Low Income Housing Tax Credit properties in San Francisco, Peter Claver Community, which was also the first residential facility to serve people with AIDS.

Michael Krasny, Ph.D., is a scholar and professor of English Language and Literature at San Francisco State University and the host of KQED’s "Forum with Michael Krasny." He is the author of a number of acclaimed books, including Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio, Literary Life and Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Search and Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means. An award-winning broadcast journalist, he has interviewed many of the world’s leading political, cultural, literary, science, technology and entertainment figures.

So what would you do as a volunteer? Event volunteers do everything from working as human signage, to helping with set-up and breakdown.