The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i, the co-founder of an organization that publishes the stories of Hawai'i, the chief administrator of Moloka'i General Hospital and the head of a group that encourages sustainable economic development each won $10,000 yesterday for their work leading their nonprofit organizations.

They each received Ho'okele — or "steersman" — Awards from the Hawai'i Community Foundation and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, which for the past four years have acknowledged the work of the non-profit sector.

But the award comes with a catch: The winners cannot use it for their organization and must instead spend it only on their "professional development and personal renewal."

One winner, Vanessa Chong, executive director of the ACLU of Hawai'i, suddenly found herself unusually uncomfortable speaking in front of a crowd.

"You can't shut us up when it comes to our organizations," said Chong, who has run Hawai'i's ACLU chapter since 1984. "But all of the honorees seemed to feel awkward having the spotlight turned personally on them. I could feel my face being hot and it was difficult for me to speak. I know it's because we are so unaccustomed to having the spotlight on us personally."

And that's the point of each year's Ho'okele Awards.

"The award recognizes these wonderful community leaders that have been giving to all of us for most of their lives and taking little in return," said Kelvin H. Taketa, president and CEO of the Hawai'i Community Foundation. "By providing this $10,000 award and insisting that they use it for their personal renewal and any professional renewal, we're really just saying 'thank you' and hoping that they'll continue their good work."

But it turns out that most of the winners end up finding a way to use the money also to help someone else, Taketa said.

"Some of the people have used the money for things they couldn't have done otherwise, like family vacations," Taketa said. "One of the recipients in the past used the money to pay for carpentry tools so they could help build a house on their family homestead with his son. We really hope that they do something for themselves. But almost to a person, they end up doing something for someone else. It's the constitutional characteristic of these people that they'll find a way to have the gift go beyond themselves."

Each winner also receives a miniature koa paddle to represent the way they guide their organizations, like the steersman of a canoe. The other three winners are: