New Yorkers can be myopic, and its whirlwind social scene doesn’t exactly help. But every now and then an event comes along that shifts the center of gravity.

The National Child Labor Committee, based in Washington, D.C., came to New York on Monday night to present the Lewis Hine Awards, named after the photographer whose images of children laboring in sweatshops, coal mines, textile mills, and on farms stirred reform in the early 20th century.

Hine, a trained sociologist, joined the National Child Labor Committee in 1908 as its first staff photographer. He went undercover for the job, disguising himself as a Bible salesman or day laborer.

The awards, in their 20th year, went to professionals, volunteers, and visionaries, some from the Big Apple and many more from all over the country.

Albany-based children’s advocate Cecily Coleman is the director of the Children of Prisoners Initiative, which helps children maintain relationships with their incarcerated parents. She knows the predicaments such children face, as her own father was released from prison 14 weeks ago, after serving a 25-year sentence.

“I’m 26. What I’ve learned from my experience and what I try to tell other people is that these children are not invisible. They did not commit the crimes their parents committed. And there are things that can be done to make sure they have a stable home life,” Ms. Coleman, whose father attended the ceremony, said.

In Albuquerque, N.M., Helen Fox finds homeless children in parks, cars, and abandoned buildings and enrolls them in school. An elementary school teacher in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Ronnie Powell, runs a summer day camp for mentally retarded children. Scott Peterson is working in Washington, D.C., to build a national youth court system that allows juveniles to be judged by peers.

The visionaries honored included the philanthropist Raymond Chambers, whose foundation supports dozens of programs for at-risk youth in Newark; the founder of the Center for Arts Education, a former chairman of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, and the secretary of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Laurie Tisch, and the entrepreneur Edward Lewis, whose Essence magazine has helped promote black women’s achievements.

Mr. Lewis got to know the work of the National Child Labor Committee through its former chairman, the late Ronald Brown. “He understood a little word called hope,” Mr. Lewis said of Brown. “So I keep on going trying to make a difference.”

The diversity in the awardees’ work on behalf of children gives a sense of the scope of the National Child Labor Committee. Founded in 1904 at Carnegie Hall, the organization worked to ban child labor and make education compulsory. One of its victories was in 1938 when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, with child labor provisions designed in part by the committee. More recently, the committee has helped bring business leaders into elementary schools and established programs for youth employment and training.

The chairman of the 2006 Lewis Hine Awards was the president of MetLife, Incorporated, Robert Henrickson. Mr. Henrickson’s wife, Mary, served as one of the judges.

“What impressed me was the total unselfishness in all the nominees,” Mrs. Henrickson said.

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On the subject of children’s helpers, the New York Public Library is launching a Library Cubs program, to accommodate the growing number of library supporters who have young children. The kickoff event is Saturday, February 11, at the flagship building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Some of the first crop of proud Cub parents include writers Molly Jong-Fast, Vicky Ward, and Paula Throckmorton Zakaria and the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.

agordon@nysun.com