Shutdown doesn't tarnish federal worker award recipient's big night "It's black tie, so we all rented tuxedos," MacKinnon said, amused at the thought of wearing such formal attire. His team of three special agents and an intelligence research specialist who worked on cybercrimes, received the award Thursday night for Operation Holitna, their effort to arrest child pornographers. "My three guys are very blue collar," MacKinnon said. So this is going to be Duck Dynasty meets Jason Bourne. His colleagues are Andrew Kelleher, Peter Manning, Gregory Squire and research specialist Ann Pombriant. The annual awards dinner, hosted by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, takes place every fall. Its venue is the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, whose colonnades face the Mall and stack neatly in line with the White House and the U.S. Treasury a block away. The night is a Cinderella moment for those honored federal workers. Except this year has been different. Of the nine honorees, four were notified this week that they have been furloughed. The others, like MacKinnon, are working without pay. "There's an unfortunate irony here," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership. MacKinnon was around for the last government shutdown, in 1995, and worked without pay then too. But now, at 52, he has a family - a 10-yearold son, a 14-year-old daughter and a wife who's a social worker and substitute teacher. They wrote a note to pull the kids out of school so they could see their dad receive his award and experience Washington for the first time. But the shutdown had shuttered the doors of the Smithsonian museums and cordoned off every national monument. "They're disappointed they can't go inside," MacKinnon said. The plan still is to see what we can see. He asked that the names of his family be withheld because of the nature of his work and concern for their safety. Thursday evening, MacKinnon donned his tuxedo and he and his family climbed the grand stairs to the Mellon Auditorium, where tables were covered with autumn-colored linen and the room was bathed in soft blue light. "When we set the date for this event almost a year ago, it never occurred to us that our government would be shut down," Stier said, in his opening remarks at the dinner. This is an abysmal way to run our government and real harm is being done. Lawmakers were in the room, listening and dining on the grilled flatiron steak with artichokes. More than 800,000 workers have been furloughed. Even in MacKinnon's office, the support staff has been sent home, with no guarantee that they will recover their lost pay. His core team, at least, continues to work and will be paid when Congress passes a bill and it is signed by President Obama to approve federal funding. MacKinnon and his team were elated about winning the award, although he noted that "they've never really sought anything but more resources." They were, however, looking forward to meeting Rand Beers, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who presented the team's award. MacKinnon's children just know that their father catches bad guys who harm children. They don't know that his team made 54 arrests in the past two years or about the kinds of videos, photos and chat rooms that are a key part of their work. "Our goal is to find out who the child is and who took the photo," MacKinnon is quoted as saying in the evening's program. His son, also dressed in rental tux, says he wants to be a crime fighter, too. Up on stage, MacKinnon spoke on behalf of his team. It's a calling. Not just a career, but a call to service," he said, with his team alongside him. We are just doing our job, and really, really believing in the mission. For more stories about the Service to America Medals, including a photo gallery of the winners and finalists, go to washingtonpost.com/leadership.