Gloria Tarsy
Gloria Tarsy volunteers as a Foster Grandparent at Terryville Elementary School in Port Jefferson Station, NY. She is an active and effective advocate for the needs of children in her community, successfully securing donations of book bags, pencils, pens, notebooks, rulers, crayons, folders and binders, as well as sneakers and clothing for the children. She has also helped better the lives of underserved children by working with Toys for Tots during the winter holidays to provide toys to more than 200 underprivileged families and by working with Foster Grandparent Program staff in the spring to make Easter baskets for children with special needs. In addition to her work with children, Gloria is an advocate for individuals with mental illness and has written many letters to area leaders and local newspapers in an effort to raise money and awareness for the National Association for Mental Illness.
A large part of Gloria’s motivation for working with at-risk children is that she firmly believes that education is paramount. She has earned a Bachelor’s degree in math, a Master’s degree in psychology and has taken courses toward a PhD. Gloria encourages education for others and promotes well-being and success in those with special needs. At Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, she advocated to employ persons with disabilities and dedicated her time and efforts to help them reach their fullest potential. Gloria helped two employees with special needs go on to earn their PhDs and aided two other disadvantaged individuals she employed to continue their education; they were eventually promoted to high-ranking positions within the company. Now 86 years old, Gloria works daily as a Foster Grandparent volunteer, helping at-risk children develop and g row personally and academically, and instills in these children the importance and value of education. She is well respected and a role model to all who are fortunate enough to know her.
Roberta Goodwin Sweet
Roberta Goodwin Sweet is one of the pillars of the Central Maryland Foster Grandparent Program. She was honored at Family and Children’s Services of Central Maryland, Inc.’s 34th Annual Recognition Ceremony for 27 years of service as a Foster Grandparent Volunteer.
During a time period where many people are doing special things for themselves or taking time to relax, Mrs. Sweet made serving others a priority. Mrs. Sweet came into the Foster Grandparent Program on October 21, 1980. She was assigned to the old Provident Hospital, and has been a dedicated volunteer ever since. Throughout the years, Mrs. Sweet has developed many relationships and become a friend and confidant to many. Mrs. Sweet is currently volunteering at the Emily Price Jones Head Start Center.
Mrs. Sweet travels to and from her host site by car, taxi, bus, light rail or subway to spend quality time with “my children”, as she so lovingly refers to the Head Start students at Emily Price. The staff at each of the host sites where Mrs. Sweet has served, often describes Mrs. Sweet as someone who has a calming and soothing affect upon children, their parents and the staff as well. Mrs. Sweet spends her time at the host site reading to the children, assisting at meal time, going on trips, storytelling, and reinforcing concepts that are taught by the teachers. In her spare time, Mrs. Sweet loves to worship at her church, travel, eat out, shop, attend concerts and simply enjoy life. She is always immaculate and beautifully dressed.
Neenia Stevens
Neenia works part-time and is a full-time volunteer. She is the co-coordinator of Clear Lake Elementary Parent Group in Clear Lake, WA. This is her second year in this position. When she first took it over there was no parent group at all. Most of the meetings consisted of herself, the secretary, one parent and the principal. She managed to host a family fun event every month and several fundraiser for the school of 220 kids!
She even raised enough money for every classroom to have a new computerized overhead projector! Over that school year all of the parents saw what a great thing the parent group was doing and decided to get involved!
Neenia has created a warm and fun environment that many want to be a part of. She now has a committee coordinator for each month’s event including one for the fundraisers. Because of her positive attitude and superior ambition the parent group has become a fully functioning community involved school. This year she plans on raising enough funds to mount all the projectors on the ceilings and continues to host the free family fun events-open to the whole community.
Tom Selleys
Tom Selleys performs volunteer duties in the Patient Discharge Lounge, Escort Office, Business Office, with the Chronic Disease Self-Management Workshop, and soon with the Care Ambassador/Greeter Program. Tom is enthusiastic, friendly, accommodating, and very conscientious and committed to doing an excellent job in performing his duties.
Tom has been a volunteer at the Fargo VA Medical Center since June 2005 and has since performed his duties in an exemplary manner. Tom started volunteering in one department in 2005 and has been expanding his services into many departments and volunteer assignments. Tom has recently attended 32 hours of formal training to become a Chronic Disease Self-Management Workshop Leader to assist staff and patients with weekly educational workshops. In addition, Tom has also agreed to commit to one full day a week as a Care Ambassador/Greeter for veterans and families at the main entrance of the hospital in getting them to their destinations within the hospital. Tom has accumulated over 850 volunteer hours in less than 3 years.
Tom is a perfect example of his caring and sharing attitude. Tom is a true supporter of the VA and genuinely cares about our nation’s veterans. The important role Tom plays in all the volunteer assignments is truly commendable and could not be accomplished without his selflessness services. As mentioned above, Tom is a true advocate of our medical center and our veterans. Tom is a caring person and is highly regarded by his fellow volunteers and VA staff. Tom is always willing to help where ever necessary. More than once, Tom was called at home to check if he would be willing to come in and assist in an area that was short volunteers. Tom has always been accommodating and willing to come in on short notice. Tom is very reliable and extremely conscientious in doing a great job and always keeps management in the loop and aware of pertinent matters as they arise or when he is leaving for the day. On more than one occasion, Tom has come to the facility for other business during the day and observes there is no coverage or additional help is needed at the reception counter and will contact Voluntary Service staff to inform us he will be volunteering at the reception counter to provide assistance.
Jordan Schwartz
Jordan got an idea to put theatre and language together. When she was 10 years old she founded The Children’s Bilingual Theater which works to help ESOL students improve their English language skills and helps young people that are learning or interested in learning Spanish. This in turn encourages her community to bridge the language and cultural gap through the theatre arts. Everyone has a chance to practice public speaking and work with different people. Jordan has put together three bilingual musicals, and has worked with almost 100 volunteers as cast, crew and costumed theatrical storytellers performing at schools, and public venues including this year’s NAACP Cobb County MLK Celebration.
For the first show, she sent fliers and letters to friends, local businesses and community leaders. More than $3,000 in contributions came in to make the show a reality, and the show toured to 4 schools in Cobb County. Now with recognition at the local, state and national levels, Jordan has raised over $30,000 to continue the theatre and literacy outreach. The theater’s work is now even known in Wisconsin and their school system as part of Democracy it is! an educational documentary series.
At age 11, Jordan was diagnosed with Turner’s syndrome, a condition requiring shots to help her grow. She was sad that along with shortness of stature, a heart condition, a kidney condition, hearing impairment and other hormone-related deficiencies she was needing Human Growth hormone injections to help her grow and help her healthy. Human growth hormones are giving Jordan an opportunity to improve her quality of life. This bad news did not stop her theater outreach and then she went on to set up ugrowgirl.org, which is a website to encourage and support other girls on human growth hormone injections. Through ugrowgirl.org Jordan celebrates all the things girls can do and with The Children’s Bilingual Theater she gets our youth more involved in their community.
Chaplain Gordon Rourk
There is a War on Drugs and Chaplain Gordon Rourk is preparing the people of Colorado for battle by delivering the anti-drug message to thousands of adults and youth in Colorado. Over the last year, Chaplain Rourk spent more than 650 volunteer hours delivering over 150 presentations to over 100,000 people.
As a volunteer in the Colorado Wing of Civil Air Patrol, Chaplain Rourk assumed the role as Drug Demand Reduction Administrator a little over a year ago with a goal to revive the Drug Demand Reduction Program in the Wing. He has spent countless hours providing anti-drug presentations, education and training to over 600 Civil Air Patrol members throughout the state. As a direct result of his dedication and commitment, Colorado Wing has one of the top Drug Demand Reduction programs in Civil Air Patrol.
In addition, Chaplain Rourk collaborated with many organizations including the US Air Force, Colorado National Guard, DEA, the Colorado Cystic Fibrosis Organization, the Colorado Rapids Soccer team, the Miss Colorado and Miss Teen Colorado organizations, the Channel 9 Health Fairs and numerous school systems to provide anti-drug presentations and training to school age youth in Colorado. In the last year, he made presentations to over 120 schools in Colorado.
Robin Ross
Robin has been a volunteer firefighter for 15 years with our department. She has completed training in the areas of State Certification in Firefighting Levels I and II, National and State Certificates as Safety Officer, Pennsylvania Department of Health Certification as a Basic Vehicle Rescue Technician, State Certification as a Hazardous Materials Technician along with numerous other certificates in firefighting, rescue operations, hazardous materials and fire department administration.
Robin has served as the department’s Safety Officer for the last 5 years and she is a member of the Fire Department Safety Officer Association since 2001. In addition, Robin also serves as the departments Fire Prevention and Public Safety Education Director. She has held this position for the last 7 years.
Fire Prevention and Public Education are the process of teaching others to prevent fires, injuries and other emergencies from occurring. Robin’s Fire Safety and Public Education program promotes this message to a population in excess of 29,000 people in Upper Merion Township. The young are most impressionable and Robin is always eager to educate an individual or group of youngsters or adults in fire safety. Whether they are cub scouts, nursery school students, a class field trip, a child with a parent or grandparent or a citizen, Robin is always prepared to discuss fire safety and injury prevention, the department’s operations, equipment and facilities. The inquisitive person or persons will always receive a message on how to prevent fires, injures and other emergencies at the conclusion of each meeting with Robin.
Annually, Robin makes visits to all schools and nursery schools within our community school system. Fire Safety Educational Seminars are held in every elementary school. These seminars include apparatus displays, demonstrations and explanations of fire and injury prevention tools and techniques. Upon request Robin will also meet with small groups from organizations and children birthday parties to promote fire safety. Throughout Robin’s career, she has taught in excess of 1,200 fire safety and educational programs. These programs have reach out to an excess of 29,000 people and distributed an excess of 100,000 educational brochures on fire safety and injury prevention.
Robin annually manages and coordinates home safety demonstrations at the local Home Depot and Community Day held at the Upper Merion Township Building Park also. These two events can have approximately in excess of 3,000 to 5,000 people attending.
In 2002, Robin designed and implemented the departments Fire Safety Education Award. This award recognizes an individual who has contributed to the department’s fire safety and educational program activities for the previous year. As the director of the program Robin will present this award at the annual department banquet held in November.
In the same year, Robin served on the committee to purchase a vehicle exhaust system for the Allendale Road Fire Station. This exhaust system was proposed and implemented solely by her to prevent her fellow firefighters from breathing in hazardous exhaust fumes from the department’s apparatus. She successfully acquired FEMA grant money to fund this project.
Vinnie Rodriguez
Vinnie Rodriguez is a great example of a youth volunteer. Though all of his service has a positive impact, one of Vinnie’s most important community service is his work to help create the FAM2E Program (Fitchburg After-school Math Mentoring Enrichment Program). FAM2E is a mentoring partnership that includes elementary and middle school students at the 21st Century After-School Program run at Fitchburg public schools.
During May 2006 Vinnie decided he wanted to expand the Step Up to Excellence Program. Step Up opened him to a whole new world that he didn’t previously experience. He sought the opportunity to assist the Montachusett Area Rotary Club in building a home for a family in Ecuador through the Habitat for Humanity Program. He and his friends in the Step Up program did various drives and events to support other large communities, including a drive to send care packages for the troops in Iraq and a memorial garden for the students in their high school who had passed away. He realized the importance of the benefits he had received, and Vinnie wanted to see more students get this kind of help. He discussed the cost to make the program grow and he suggested a bake sale and other fund raising activities as a way Step Up Students could help.
Vinnie would periodically talk about this topic with his mentors, and they became aware of an opportunity to establish a mentoring program. After discussions with the Montachusett Opportunity Council (MOC), Vinnie decided to create an after school program for elementary and middle school students that would utilize high school students in a mentoring role. Vinnie’s many hours of work inspire, develop, and work in this program to be a significant contribution to the youth of Fitchburg.
The Program expanded rapidly and by June 2006 over 800 hours of mentoring community service had been completed by more than 30 high school students. Vinnie graduated and went on to Wentworth Institute in Boston, but the Program expanded to 4 sites with 45 students working over 1200 hours by June of 2007.
This fall FAM2E Program expanded to five sites and even more students are participating. They project more than 1600 hours of mentoring by about 50 students for the current school year. The FAM2E Program is now a listed activity in the Fitchburg High School Handbook. The 21st Century sites service about 300 students with close to 60% qualifying for Free or Reduced Lunch Programs. Vinnie has mentored during his holiday breaks and stays connected to the program.
Vinnie is now majoring on a full scholarship (with the help of Step Up) in his second year in Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology. He started his first year with a bang when he became President of his building’s Residence Hall Association. He said, “it was frustrating because when I reached college, I wanted to serve the community right away, but was unfamiliar with the area, so didn’t know where to help.” That impression soon changed. He participated in an Alternative Spring Break in New Orleans, where he and 30 other Wentworth students worked on reviving a home devastated by Hurricane Katrina into the People’s Environmental Center, which would test the ground for toxins brought by storms and teach people how to treat their homes to combat them.
In his second year, Vinnie became President of the Multicultural Student Association and, as a big speaker for diversity, is working hard to educate his members on how to become more effective leaders. He took on the responsibility of being a member of the Big Brothers Association of Massachusetts Bay, in which he currently serves as the “Big Brother” of an 11-year old child named William who wants the presence of a role model.
Vinnie dedicated his summer to being a Residential Counselor in the Upward Bound Summer 2007 Program, where he tutored and monitored high school students, and facilitated programs for them. He also squeezed into the same summer being an Orientation Leader to make new students at Wentworth more comfortable. Has he stopped serving his community? No, Vinnie plans to participate in Project Bread’s 20-mile Walk for Hunger with friends in his college in May and hopes to complete the full route.
George Ridley
George Ridley is a member of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) Professional Services Responder (PSR) program and is one of the unit’s most active participants. Since his appointment to the position of PSR on November 19, 2002, he has volunteered more than 1,050 service hours. The goal of the PSR program is to recruit and train highly successful professional men and women to provide on a voluntary basis their leadership and professional skills as they relate to the OCSD’s mission statement. The PSR program supplements traditional Reserve programs with non-sworn volunteers. PSRs provide administrative and leadership support in the areas of: emerging technologies, communications, industrial relations, graphic arts, healthcare, dignitary protection, firearm safety instruction, legal and accounting services, international protocol, governmental relations and emergency response resources.
George’s primary role as a PSR is that of department photographer, regularly filling-in for the OCSD’s full-time photographer whenever needed. In this capacity, he provides professional expertise during special programs such as the Medal of Valor Awards Banquet, the Peace Officer’s Memorial Ceremonies and academy graduations. One of George’s recent volunteer endeavors involved flying photo missions for the Terrorism Early Warning Group (TEWG). The purpose of this project was to photograph every potential high-profile terrorist target in Orange County. Overall, he flew a total of 28 flights, logging 49 flight hours and dedicating 148 hours to the project. While this was a team effort with many individuals contributing to its success, George was an integral part of the team, and as the only volunteer actively involved in the project, he demonstrated the exceptional value of PSRs in enhancing operations within the Sheriff’s Department.
Katharyn Rico-Drennon
Katharyn has been working with East Side Heroes, a Bay Area nonprofit organization, for the past 3 years. She was recently appointed to the Board as the Secretary and Treasurer. East Side Heroes’ primary mission is to provide mentoring and scholarships to low income students. These students are oftentimes the first person ever to attend college in their family. In addition to the 50+ hours each week she works at Sun, Katharyn spends 10-15 hours wearing many volunteer hats for East Side Heroes. She has organized fundraisers and successfully secured scholarship money from organizations including Sun’s Employee Resource Group, Society of Latinos. In addition, she has coordinated media appearances such as the recent appearance on a San Jose, CA local television show, Comunidad del Valle.
Katharyn also provides invaluable administrative assistance to the organization which allows the staff to concentrate on mentor training to bring more mentors onboard to fill the enormous need that exists. Katharyn is honored to sit on the East Side Heroes Scholarship Review Panel helping with the scholarship recipient selection process. Because of Katharyn Rico-Drennon’s endless compassion and dedication to service, low income families and under privileged students will continue to have access to a college prep education and long term mentorship as they become our next generation of community leaders.
