Outstanding Adult Volunteer Award goes to Jeff Klein of Bend, Outstanding Senior Volunteer (age 55 or better) to Nancy Allen, State of Oregon Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Bend, Outstanding Volunteer Program Jericho Road of Redmond.
The 2012 Oregon Governor’s Volunteer Awards on Friday, November 9, will honor 14 individuals and 12 organizations from throughout the state for their commitment to serving Oregon and its people (see winners list below).
The Oregon Volunteers Commission for Voluntary Action and Service organizes the awards program, which is sponsored by Wells Fargo. At the awards luncheon, the winners will receive cash grants from Wells Fargo to give to their favorite nonprofit group.
“Oregon is made richer by the contributions of our talented and compassionate citizens,” said Gov. John Kitzhaber. “These award winners represent the best of the state — people who give their time, energy, and resources to lifting up others and making Oregon a better place to live.”
The luncheon at the Salem Conference Center will be noon to 2 p.m. and is open to the public. Admission is $30 per person. Registration is required. For additional information and to register, go to www.oregonvolunteers.org/events/gva/2012.
The annual Governor’s Volunteer Awards honor ordinary Oregonians who do extraordinary things and also inspire and motivate future volunteerism. Nominations were received from all over the state and were carefully evaluated by appointed review committees.
The 2012 awards highlight the volunteer efforts of eight statewide winners and 18 regional winners. These outstanding volunteers have generously offered service to causes ranging from social justice, legal services, and health care to arts, education, and youth and senior activities.
“Through their skilled labor and professional services, board service, or simply lending an ear and providing friendship, the honorees’ dedication to volunteerism has helped create stronger, more vibrant Oregon communities,” said Wells Fargo Regional President Don Pearson, himself a frequent volunteer.
The statewide winners are:
Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer Achievement Award: Clyde Mullin of Keizer
Born in 1917, volunteering has been a truly lifelong commitment for Clyde Mullin. After volunteering for military service during WWII, Mullin and his wife were very active in Portland’s Creston Grade School PTA, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Boy Scouts, and the Mazamas. Over the past 21 years, Mullin has given 8,373 hours to repairing and maintaining Talking Book cassette players for the Oregon State Library’s Talking Book and Braille Services. Since 1994, he has delivered approximately 30,000 meals to seniors and disabled adults while volunteering for the Salem-Keizer Meals on Wheels. His lifetime of service and generosity has created a significant improvement in quality of life for countless individuals across Oregon and beyond.
Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award: Sean Bowden of Roseburg
Many have described teen volunteer Sean Bowden as a natural leader. Not only has he taken leadership roles within the Mercy Medical Center Youth Volunteer Program he also helped found Roseburg High School’s drug prevention team. Bowden volunteers weekly in Mercy Medical Center’s Emergency Department. He has served 323 hours since starting in late 2010. He trains new student volunteers in the Emergency Department, conducts outreach to other high schools to promote and strengthen the volunteer program, has chaired several fundraisers to help support the hospital’s health-themed day camp, and has delivered presentations about Mercy’s youth volunteer program at conferences around the country. Bowden has made such incredible contributions to his community all while maintaining a 3.8 GPA.
Outstanding Adult Volunteer Award: Jeff Klein of Bend
Over the past 20 years Jeff Klein has given over 5,000 hours to improving the lives of vulnerable children and young adults. He has shared his time, energy, and resources through service on the boards of KIDS Center and St. Charles Medical Center Foundation in Bend, and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. In addition to board service, he has volunteered for the United Way, Miller Elementary in Bend, and as a coach for a variety of youth sports. Klein currently serves as board chair of KIDS Center, a regional child abuse intervention center, where he has not only increased fundraising success and improved board development but has expanded awareness of child abuse prevention training. As a result, more than 40 families have attended training and, as research indicates, more than 4,000 children are better protected. Klein’s enthusiasm for volunteering has been described as contagious and motivating and inspires a passion for volunteerism and philanthropy in his community.
Outstanding Senior Volunteer Award: Shirley Carpenter of Portland
In alignment with her personal mission, “to touch someone’s life,” Shirley Carpenter has spent the past 40 years diligently working to improve Oregon communities through volunteer service. Co-founding the weekly free meal service Potluck in the Park, delivering countless meals through Meals on Wheels, and helping children be successful students through her hundreds of hours of PTA work are just a few of her many contributions. At the Family Relief Nursery, she has volunteered more than 1,800 hours helping vulnerable preschool children thrive through care, encouragement, and education. As a weekly volunteer builder for Habitat for Humanity she has given almost 200 hours in the past year alone. Carpenter also currently volunteers for Franklin High School PTA. Carpenter is a passionate advocate and recruiter for the organizations she volunteers with. Her friends, family, and neighbors are often so inspired by her enthusiasm that many become volunteers themselves.
Outstanding Youth Volunteer Program Award: Tualatin High School Life Skills Class
The Tualatin High School Life Skills Class provides opportunities for students with disabilities to contribute to their community while learning basic life skills. In partnership with the City of Tualatin, some of the program’s activities include making markers for new native tree plantings, matching and sorting laundered gloves from previous plantings, and getting their hands dirty with at least one tree planting per year. The teenage volunteers have increased their civic engagement by helping to beautify their community and create healthy habitats for animals and birds. The class has helped demonstrate to all students that anyone can contribute, regardless of ability.
Outstanding Volunteer Program Award: Sherman County Emergency Services
Sherman County Emergency Services volunteers drop everything at the sound of the pager. Family dinners, holiday events, and birthdays are often missed due to their duty to respond and help those in need. In a small, rural area stricken with wildfires and traffic collisions on one of America’s most dangerous highways, the Fire and Emergency Medical volunteers go above and beyond to provide critical services. In addition to protecting and strengthening their own community, they provide aid to the many travelers on the busy highways which pass through the county. Without the Sherman County Emergency Services volunteers there would be no emergency services available to community members or those who recreate there. Their altruistic dedication to extensive, continued training and dropping everything for an emergency has enabled Sherman County Emergency Services to save countless lives.
Outstanding Statewide Volunteer Program Award: Oregon FIRST Robotics
The mission of Oregon FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders. Volunteer mentors in the program build science, engineering, and technology skills, inspire innovation, and foster life-long skills including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. FIRST relies on thousands of volunteers to mentor and coach youths age 6-18 in designing, building, and programming robots for competitions. These volunteers not only help young people build STEM skills, they also mentor, guide, encourage, and inspire hope and a bright future. FIRST has reached more than 5,000 students across the state, including the Portland metro area, Brookings, Klamath Falls, Monroe, Baker City, Umatilla, Seaside and Vernonia. Umatilla School District Superintendent Heidi Sipe reported that after three months on the robotics team, students affiliated with gangs had replaced Facebook postings of gang symbols and drug references with postings about robots.
Outstanding Business Volunteer Program Award: Freelin-Wade in McMinnville
In 2011, Freelin-Wade, a plastic tubing manufacturer, formed a steering committee to expand employee volunteerism and community support from dollars raised to employees engaged. In order to make the greatest impact, each year the committee, nicknamed “Force,” selects one local nonprofit on which to focus all of the company’s volunteerism, fundraising, and community-building efforts. One of the most popular events is community-wide barbecues. All proceeds from these events go to the current nonprofit partner. Force’s goal of 100 percent employee engagement was reached in its first year and employee engagement was already at 93 percent by mid-August 2012.
The regional winners are:
Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer Achievement: Potluck in the Park, Portland
Outstanding Youth Volunteer (age 18 or under): Ryan Houlberg, City of Tualatin – Team Tualatin, Tualatin
Outstanding Adult Volunteer (age 19-54):
● Khrystyl Best, Salem District Bureau of Land Management, Mill City
● Laurie Jenkins, Liberty High School – Liberty Fit, Hillsboro
● Theresa Perry, Heart of Hospice, Hood River
● Raman Srinivasan, Rasika, Portland
Outstanding Senior Volunteer (age 55 or better)
● Nancy Allen, State of Oregon Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Bend
● Anna Burke, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) of Jackson County, Medford
● Karen Burrell, Linn-Benton RSVP – Senior Health Insurance Benefits Association, Albany
● Sandra Fritz, State of Oregon Citizen Review Board, The Dalles
● Susan Latham, Catholic Community Services, Salem
Outstanding Volunteer Program
● Beaverton School District Clothes Closet, Beaverton
● College Dreams/Guiding Lights Mentoring Program, Grants Pass
● Jericho Road, Redmond
● Oregon Coast Aquarium, Newport
● N.W. Senior and Disability Services – Senior Peer Counseling, Salem
Outstanding Business Volunteer Program
● Pacific Continental Bank – Giving with Heart, Eugene
● Waggener Edstrom, Lake Oswego
Oregon Volunteers is the State Commission for Voluntary Action and Service promoting and supporting AmeriCorps, volunteerism and civic engagement to strengthen Oregon communities. For more information about Oregon Volunteers, please visit www.oregonvolunteers.org.
Serving Oregonians since 1852, Wells Fargo is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company. In 2010 the company received the Governor’s Volunteer Award for having the top Statewide Employee Volunteer program. Last year Wells Fargo team members in Oregon and S.W. Washington volunteered 73,518 hours for hundreds of schools and nonprofit agencies.
