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WS - Volunteer Awards Service Awards 1 Good Evening, Madame Mayor and Members of the City Council -- This evening we are excited to present Volunteer Southlake Service Awards. Volunteers are very important and play a critical role at the City of Southlake. Their impact is felt in library, at the senior activity center, in the police and fire departments, inside Town Hall and other various programs and special events such as stars and stripes and home for the holidays. Volunteers also serve very important roles on numerous boards and commissions. Southlake volunteers work very hard to make Southlake great and Southlake volunteers are some of the most dedicated. From April 1st 2016 – March 31, 2017 volunteers gave over 28,000 hours of service to the City of Southlake. To give perspective, equivalent to nearly 14 full-time employees and has a value of $698,850. In fact, volunteers are more dedicated than ever to serving southlake – in the last two years, volunteer service hours have increased by 16%. (25,307 – 2015) (27,487 – 2016) This evening, we are here to celebrate and honor those that have achieved service awards. 3 categories of awards – Junior and Adult Service Awards, Milestone Service Award, and Presidential Service Award. We do have nearly 40 volunteers receiving recognition this evening, so prior to the meeting we did capture a picture of our award recipients with the Mayor on the steps of Town Hall. Without further ado, let’s get started. Junior Service Award Gilma Romero-Alvarado 2 First award this evening is the Junior Service Award. The Junior Service Award is presented to the volunteer between the ages of 12 and 16 who has served the most hours in the last 12 months. This year, this honor goes to Gilma Romero-Alvarado. Gilma, will you please step forward? Gilma volunteered 122.25 hours primarily serving at Camp Mania last summer. She worked closely with camp participants helping with games, crafts and other camp activities. Without the help of volunteers, camp mania would not be possible and, in particular, Gilma’s dedication to this program is noted. Please help me congratulate Gilma on earning this accomplishment. Adult Service Award Marie Doran 3 Next, I’d like to present the Adult Service Award. Similar to the Junior Service Award, this Award is presented to the adult volunteer who served the most hours in the last 12 months. This year the recipient is Marie Doran. Marie, will you please step forward? Marie is a long time member of the Senior Activity Center and in the last 12 months she volunteered 546.75. Marie is a dedicated volunteer at the Senior Activity Center where she wears many different hats – She is the center’s librarian, she oversees food pantry donations, she often serves as the front desk greeter and gives tours to visitors and new members. On top of all that, she is also the knitting club instructor. Marie is a great asset to the center and senior community --- Please help me congratulate Marie. 500 Hours Marie Doran Joan Houle Marge Kyle Reza Saffarian Milestone Service Awards 4 The next category of awards are the Milestone Service Awards. These awards are presented to volunteers who have reached 500, 1,000 or 1,500 hour service milestones with Volunteer Southlake. We are very grateful for the dedication and commitment these individuals have to the City of Southlake. They have sacrificed time with their families to serve this community and we honor their commitment this evening. There are eight individuals receiving this recognition tonight and as I call your name, please step forward. In recognition of serving over 500 hours: Marie Doran - (643.75 hours) Joan Houle - (555.25 hours) Marge Kyle - (638.48 hours) Reza Saffarian - (573.25 hours) 1,000 Hours Tom Moore Janie Stewart Milestone Service Awards 5 In recognition of serving over 1,000 hours: Tom Moore (1,173.63 hours) Janie Stewart (1,048 hours) Milestone Service Awards 1,500 Hours Wayne Berryman Pamela Muller 6 And finally, in recognition of serving over 1,500 hours: Wayne Berryman (1,525.78 hours) Pamela Muller (1,614.20 hours) Please join me in congratulating all of our milestone recipients. Presidential Service Award Finally, the last award category this evening is the President’s Volunteer Service Award. The President’s Volunteer Service Award was started by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation in 2003 as a way to thank and honor Americans who, by example, inspired others to engage in volunteer service. The Council no longer exists, but the program continues as an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service and is administered by Points of Light. The City of Southlake is proud to be a certifying organization for the award and is honored to present this award to Southlake Volunteers.   The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes citizens who have achieved a required number of hours of service over a 12-month time period. Tonight we are honored to recognize 40 recipients in the Bronze, Silver and Gold categories. Teens (11-15) Young Adults (16-25) Adults (26+) 7 Presidential Service Award Bronze Deborah Barber Brad Belk Patricia Brayton Patrick Cammarata, Jr. Christian Dang Ed Grondahl Amanda Higginbotham Claire Hines John Hintze Joan Houle Adam Ismail Arvind Krishnan Marge Kyle Mairi Marker Lori Maxwell Tom Moore Nikhil Nandigama Wayne Powell Gilma Romero-Alvarado Richard Shen James Shirey Gavin Tamer Bob Tergerson Erin Votaw 8 To receive a Bronze Presidential Service Award, Teen volunteers were required to serve a minimum of 50 volunteer service hours, young adults and adults were required to serve 100 hours. This year, 24 Southlake Volunteers earned this distinction. As I call your name please stand – Please help me congratulate each of the recipients. Teens (11-15) Young Adults (16-25) Adults (26+) Presidential Service Award Silver Wayne Berryman Gary Davidson Morgan Fazakerley Leroy McCall Karen Mertz Courtney Mullan Pamela Muller Vanessa Ortiz Morgan Smith Scott Spooner Ken Stewart Kenneth Stone Jessica Ye 9 To earn a silver award, teen volunteers must have served a minimum of 75 hours, young adults 175 hours and adults 250 hours. 13 Southlake volunteers received this recognition -- As I call your name please stand – Please help me congratulate each of the recipients. Teens (11-15) Young Adults (16-25) Adults (26+) Presidential Service Award Gold Emma Blight Marie Doran Erick Garcia Reza Saffarian 10 And finally, we have four volunteers who earned gold awards this year. Earning a gold award requires 100 volunteer service hours for teen volunteers, 250 hours for young adults and 500 service hours for adult volunteers. This year’s recipients are: Emma Blight Marie Doran Erick Garcia And Reza Saffarian Please join me in congratulating all our Gold Presidential Service Award Recipients. Teens (11-15) Young Adults (16-25) Adults (26+) Congratulations! 11 Volunteers are very important to the City and the community and we truly appreciate the commitment and dedication of each and every volunteer Finally, I’d like to invite everyone to join us for a short reception here in the foyer immediately following the completion of the Work Session. Again, I’d like to congratulate all of the award recipients and thank each and everyone of our volunteers for their dedicated service and commitment to the City.