TOLEDO — The 37th annual Diamante Awards will honor outstanding Latino leaders and celebrate this year’s LIDERAMOS Toledo graduates Thursday evening, Oct. 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the University of Toledo’s Lancelot Thompson Student Union.
The awards close out National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 across Northwest Ohio and the country. Organizers describe the evening as a celebration of achievement and service, recognizing individuals and organizations whose work has strengthened the region’s Latino community.
The Diamante Awards — diamante means diamond in Spanish — were founded in 1989 by IMAGE of Northwest Ohio, a local Latino advocacy group. What began more than three decades ago has become one of the region’s longest-running celebrations of Latino leadership, returning each fall to spotlight educators, advocates, professionals and community volunteers.
This year’s program pairs the awards with the graduation of the latest LIDERAMOS Toledo class. Participants in that program completed an intensive, Latino-focused leadership course designed to prepare graduates for greater roles in civic, nonprofit and community life across the Toledo area.
The event also serves a practical purpose beyond the ceremony itself. The Diamante Awards raise scholarship funds for Latino youth who want to advance their education by attending a college or university in the region, turning an evening of recognition into direct support for the next generation of students.
That scholarship mission connects the awards to the university hosting them. Students from across Northwest Ohio use regional campuses as their route into health care, education, business and public service, and supporters say visible community backing can be the difference in whether a student enrolls and finishes.
For attendees, Thursday’s gathering is also a networking moment for Toledo’s Latino community and its allies, bringing together past honorees, scholarship supporters, graduates and families in one room. Tickets were offered through the event’s public listing, with the program scheduled in the Student Union Auditorium.
As the 37th edition begins, organizers will be honoring this year’s recipients while the newest LIDERAMOS graduates step forward — a pairing that captures the Diamante idea in one evening: celebrate the leaders who have already given back, and send a new class out to do the same.
