Ethics in Business: honorees united in purpose, friendship.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Project C.U.R.E. - CAP Logistics

Two winners of 2005 Colorado Ethics in Business Awards know each other well because they have made a practice--an ethical practice--of using each other to accomplish their ethical goals.

Doug Jackson, CEO of the nonprofit Project C.U.R.E., which has shipped millions of tons of medical supplies around the globe, has used CAP Logistics, a Denver shipping company that competes with UPS, Federal Express and other shipping giants, to move pallets of Project C.U.R.E. supplies to their worldwide destinations--including pallets actually donated by Gayle and Karen Dendinger's 23-year-old company.

"Gayle's a good friend," said Jackson, a former attorney who is the son of James Jackson, founder of Project C.U.R.E., the winner of this year's Samaritan Institute Award, given to a nonprofit that demonstrates ethics in its work.

Jackson explained that Project C.U.R.E. has a corporate program that enlists companies to sponsor the average $500 shipping cost of a pallet of medical goods.

"Gayle was one of the first ones to jump on that program," said Jackson. That means CAP Logistics pays for a $500 shipment of $10,000 worth of medical goods each month.

Gayle and Karen Dendinger's company won one of two Ethics in Business awards given this year, sharing the company honors with First Bank Holding Co., the state's largest locally owned banking organization.

Claudia Abernethy, an attorney who created a practice defending tenants' rights, won the Daniel L. Ritchie Award, which goes annually to an individual who, over a lifetime, demonstrates ethical character by working with others without prejudice.

All four honorees will receive their awards at an Ethics in Business Awards banquet sponsored by AMG Guaranty Trust on March 24 at the Denver Marriott City Center.

The awards were founded by the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, ColoradoBiz and the Samaritan Institute. James O'Toole, an author, senior fellow of the Aspen Institute and a professor at the University of Southern California, will speak at the luncheon on "The Ethics of Human Capital: The Need for a New Employment Covenant."

Here are profiles of the award winners:

Claudia Abernethy's father, Oswald C. Abernethy Sr., was the first African-American administrative-law judge in Colorado, but his daughter became an expert in landlord-tenant law because of a woman who walked into a legal-aid clinic in Houston.

Abernethy was a law student working at the clinic for class credit. "The first case that walked in the door for me," she said, "was a lady carrying groceries, a purse and a baby, who said her landlord had just locked her door.

...