Defender Service Honorees Award

Adaptive Adventures provides inclusive outdoor adaptive recreation opportunities for children, adults, and veterans with physical disabilities & their families across 30 states, headquartered in Colorado.

The Bionic Project is dismantling disability bias and training the next generation of allies nationwide through full-day, interactive school programs.

Catalyst Sports gives people living with physical disabilities access to the life-changing impact of sports and adventure — inspiring joy, independence, and community.

From building oyster reefs to restoring wetlands with native plants, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana unites people through advocacy and action to achieve a thriving, sustainable Louisiana coast for all.

Combat Recovery Foundation is dedicated to preventing suicide and supporting veterans and trauma survivors through community-driven programs, peer support, and recovery initiatives in northern Colorado.

The HIT Living Foundation (Honesty, Integrity, Trust) is a Southern California–based, foster-driven nonprofit that rehabilitates and rehomes dogs, supports pets and families in need, and responds to natural disasters across Southern California through animal search and rescue and the delivery of essential relief supplies.

From Mt. Whitney to Death Valley, Inyo County Search and Rescue is an all-volunteer search and rescue team providing services in the Eastern Sierra, an area that contains the highest and lowest points in the lower 48 states.

Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles is the only year-round organization authorized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to rehabilitate sick and injured marine mammals in Los Angeles County and rescues more marine mammals per mile of coastline than any other organization in the US.

Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula empowers older adults, adults with disabilities, veterans, and underserved neighbors to live with independence through nutrition and compassionate support services across the Monterey Peninsula.

From off-road cycling to kayaking, North Carolina Adapted Sports focuses on the transformative power of adaptive sports for individuals living with physical disabilities, free of cost, in the Triangle Area of North Carolina and beyond.

Pemberton Search and Rescue is a volunteer-based emergency response organization providing highly trained search and rescue services for lost, injured, or stranded people in wilderness, mountain, and remote environs in southwestern British Columbia.

Red Feather Development Group works to improve housing, health, and resilience in Indigenous and rural communities across the Southwest and northern plains of Arizona.

Based in Southern California, Shelter to Soldier rescues dogs from local shelters and transforms into highly skilled companions and working service dogs for veterans and active-duty military personnel.

SICSA Pet Adoption and Wellness Center is an animal shelter, veterinary clinic, pet adoption and wellness center serving southwest Ohio.

Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue is focused on saving lives and building a safer outdoor culture through education, outreach, and emergency response across the remote and rugged terrain of British Columbia's Sunshine Coast.

The Food Brigade helps feed people in need through a “food rescue” operation which stocks the shelves of its free Community Markets – food pantries set in a grocery-store environment, to bring the highest level of dignity and respect to the food assistance process.