Five members of the Los Angeles Catholic community who have extensive and distinguished records of service were announced last week as recipients of the 2008 Cardinal's Award.

Cardinal Roger Mahony presented the honorees at the annual awards luncheon held Sept. 12 at San Miguel School in Watts, the beneficiary of the 2008 dinner. The honorees are:

---Richard H. Closson directs the archdiocesan Office of Trusts and Estates assisting parishes and schools to learn about planned giving. He is a parishioner of Holy Angels Church, Arcadia.

---Antoinette Hodgkiss leads the Eucharistic ministry program at St. Brendan Church, Los Angeles, and is actively involved in numerous charities.

---Dorothy King is founder of the Catholic Bible Institute which is located at Loyola Marymount University and is a parishioner of St. Gregory the Great Church, Whittier.

---Gary Krauss is founder of Ascending Lights, an inner city youth mentoring program and is a parishioner of St. Ann Church in Los Angeles and St. Denis Church in Diamond Bar.

---Jesuit Father Robert Lawton is president of Loyola Marymount University with the vision to integrate the university into all aspects of community life of Los Angeles.

The 19th Annual Cardinal's Awards Dinner, to be held Feb. 9 at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, will benefit the efforts of San Miguel School to add a pre-school and a kindergarten and to develop a specialized learning center for young students from pre-school through third grade.

Calling the school's plans "experimental and a model for the future," Cardinal Mahony said the learning center would provide "special attention and focus on the formation and education of the youngest children, so that when they move to the fourth grade setting they will be far better prepared down the road."

The 2008 honorees bring to 94 the number of men and women honored with the award. Since 1990, more than $6.4 million has been raised to support 70 different schools, parishes, charities or relief efforts in all pastoral regions of the archdiocese. Last year's dinner was the first one to exceed $1 million in individual contributions and foundation support to create an inter-parochial pre-school at San Antonio de Padua Parish in East Los Angeles. For information and reservations on the 2008 Cardinal's Award Dinner, call (213) 637-7636.

Editor's note: Next week The Tidings will profile the educational mission and future plans of San Miguel School.