Local Foundation Named Webby Award Finalist

PALO ALTO – Kidsdata.org, a website that consolidates and tracks data about the health and well being of children in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, was one of five finalists for a Webby Award — the leading international award for websites — in the Family/Parenting category. The winners were announced today.

Kidsdata.org, which just launched in October 2004, was the only local website nominated in its category. The four other finalists are national sites.

Kidsdata.org, a program of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, offers information on community resources, volunteer opportunities and related news and research, in addition to data on hundreds of indicators of children’s health.

A second foundation website, www.kidscal.org, a calendar of children’s health events in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, was named as a “Webby Worthy” site of distinction, an honor given to less than 20 percent of the 4,300 entries to the 2005 Webby Awards.

The Palo Alto-based Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health is an 8-year-old public charity whose mission is to “promote, protect, and sustain the physical, mental, emotional and behavioral health of children.”

In a separate award, the foundation’s main website, www.LPFCH.org, won a gold medal in April from the Council on Foundations for foundations in its size category.