[News] Add CNCF honours cloud native pioneers at 2025 community awards

src/collections/news/2025/2025-12-01-cncf-honours-cloud-native-pioneers-2025-community-awards/index.mdx

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+---
+title: "CNCF honours cloud native pioneers at 2025 community awards"
+subtitle: "Layer5 founder Lee Calcote receives inaugural Outstanding Mentor Award among diverse honorees shaping cloud native technology."
+date: 2025-12-01 08:00:00 -0530
+author: The Newsroom
+thumbnail: ./channellife-cncf-2025.webp
+darkthumbnail: ./channellife-cncf-2025.webp
+category: "Press Coverage"
+description: "ChannelLife covers CNCF's 2025 Community Awards, highlighting Layer5 founder Lee Calcote's recognition with the inaugural Outstanding Mentor Award for supporting over 60 mentees."
+tags:
+  - Press
+  - CNCF
+  - Community Awards
+  - Layer5
+  - Mentorship
+  - Lee Calcote
+type: News
+presskit: ""
+resource: false
+published: true
+---
+
+import { Link } from "gatsby";
+import { NewsWrapper } from "../../News.style.js";
+import Blockquote from "../../../../reusecore/Blockquote";
+
+<NewsWrapper>
+
+**ChannelLife** has covered the Cloud Native Computing Foundation's 2025 Community Awards, highlighting the recognition of contributors and organizations shaping cloud native technology. Among the honorees, **Layer5 founder Lee Calcote** received the **inaugural Outstanding Mentor Award** for his extensive mentorship efforts across the CNCF ecosystem.
+
+<a href="https://channellife.ca/story/cncf-honours-cloud-native-pioneers-at-2025-community-awards">Read the full article on ChannelLife</a>
+
+## **Recognition Across the Cloud Native Ecosystem**
+
+The awards highlighted various contributions, including technical leadership, mentorship, end-user implementation, and efforts to protect open-source projects from patent challenges. With an ecosystem of more than 270,000 contributors and over 700 member organizations, the CNCF Community Awards celebrate the diverse skills and dedication that sustain the cloud native sector.
+
+## **Lee Calcote's Mentorship Impact**
+
+Lee Calcote received the inaugural Outstanding Mentor Award for supporting more than 60 mentees over the past five years through CNCF and Linux Foundation initiatives. The article notes that many of his mentees have progressed to become project maintainers themselves, demonstrating the lasting impact of his mentorship approach.
+
+His mentorship work has spanned multiple programs, including:
+- The Linux Foundation's LFX Mentorship Program
+- Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
+- CNCF TAG initiatives
+- Meshery and Layer5 community programs
+
+## **Other Notable Award Recipients**
+
+The ChannelLife article highlighted several other award categories:
+
+- **Lifetime Achievement Award**: Dawn Chen and Kevin Wang, recognized for a decade of involvement with Kubernetes and the CNCF ecosystem
+- **Top End User Award**: Michelin, for advancing cloud-native development and sharing best practices
+- **Top Committer Award**: John Howard, for technical work as a maintainer across CNCF projects
+- **Cloud Native Hero Award**: Chris Buccella, Ketan Sachdeva, and Ritu Tyagi, for defending open-source projects against patent threats
+- **TAGGIE Award**: Dawn Foster, Marina Moore, Leo Pahlke, and Mauricio Salatino, for contributions to Technical Advisory Groups
+
+</NewsWrapper>