Pediatrician Receives Foster Care Charity’s Angel Award

PASADENA, CA)—For Glendale pediatrician and resident, Steven Nishibayashi, helping children heal and grow to become healthy adults is more than a job; it’s his mission in life. During Hillsides' volunteer ceremony, Nishibayashi was honored with the charity’s Hillsides Angel Award, which is presented to an extraordinary individual who consistently volunteers his time to help children in foster care.

As a pediatrician for over 26 years, Nishibayashi’s affinity for children’s issues is enormous. Having learned of Hillsides at his church and the alternative holiday gift program at Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, Nishibayashi became intimately involved in the charity’s mission—to create safe places for children in foster care and in the community who have mental health disorders.

Nishibayashi says advocating for children at Hillsides who do not have a voice is meaningful service. With his own ability to advocate, Nishibayashi can help them “maximize their individual potential in an environment and world that seems to have obstructed rather than nourished.”

From membership in several Hillsides’ board of directors committees to providing support to many Hillsides events, Nishibayashi’s contribution to the agency is invaluable. Most importantly, Hillsides children anxiously wait for Nishibayashi to don his Dodgers uniform and play ball with them at the Hillsides Guild annual picnic in July.

Nishibayashi sees his involvement with Hillsides as a representation of a current day example of the parable of the loaves and fishes—many people making small contributions resulting in a synergistic end product. Nishibayashi and his wife, Mary Dee Hacker, a Hillsides’ board member, have made Hillsides a family philanthropic effort, including both their children, Kathryn and Mark, in the charity’s mission too. For Nishibayashi, the end product has been a major blessing in his life.

“Hillsides is truly blessed with an extraordinary individual making generous contributions to the lives of children in foster care and families we serve,” said John Hitchcock, Hillsides’ executive director. “We can always count on Steve to be an advocate for the children served by our charity.”

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About Hillsides: As a Pasadena charity founded in 1913, Hillsides creates safe places for children in foster care living in its residential treatment center and is a community treatment center preventing the cycle of abuse for children at risk and their families. To learn more about Hillsides, visit www.Hillsides.org.