The ADL Mountain States Region offers its sincere congratulations to board member Lloyd Lewis, president and CEO of the Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado, on being awarded with the World Citizenship Award by Civitan International at its 102nd Civitan International Convention on July 4th in San Antonio, TX. The award puts Lloyd in a distinguished group of recipients that include President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics. Civitan International, a volunteer service organization that includes more than 22,000 members in over 500 clubs in 25 countries across the globe, gives its World Citizenship Award to an honoree who has “made significant contributions to mankind.” The prize is voted upon by Civitan International Board of Directors and is not given every year, but only when it’s dutifully earned.
Lloyd was chosen to receive the award in recognition of his nearly two decades of supporting advocacy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The journey that brought him to this place is a remarkable story, told in the video that Civitans prepared for the honor. Watch here.
Before joining Arc Thrift Stores, Lloyd had a successful financial career in Philadelphia and Denver. In 2003 his world changed when his son Kennedy was born with Down syndrome. Before that moment, Lloyd knew very little about intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Lloyd said that from the moment Kennedy was born, he knew, “It was time for me to do my part to help change the world for my son, and for others like him.”
Lloyd joined the Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado, a nonprofit corporation that includes 31 thrift stores across the state, in 2005 to help change the way people think about, connect with, and employ people with disabilities. Under his leadership, Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado is the state’s largest funder of advocacy for persons with IDD, having provided over $120 million to advocacy programs benefitting 15 Arc Chapters in Colorado. The Arc Chapters of Colorado help individuals with IDD find jobs, housing, medical services, and services in schools, serving over 10,000 individuals and families. Additionally, Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado is one of the state’s largest employers of people with IDD, employing nearly 400 of these wonderful individuals working in all sorts of jobs, from production to office staff, including supplemental education, social, and community service programs for these employees. Lloyd justifiably takes pride in having led Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado in becoming one of the state’s largest social enterprises, with a $3 billion economic impact on Colorado during his tenure.
You may read ADL’s recent interview with Lloyd here. We congratulate him on this remarkable and well-deserved honor.