Community Corner

Service Awards Honor Fairfax County Volunteers

Several Annandale residents and hundreds more from the county were recognized for their volunteer work at an awards ceremony held Thursday morning in Springfield

Hundreds of volunteers were recognized for their service to their community at the 19th annual Fairfax County Volunteer Service Awards at the Waterford in Springfield on Thursday morning.

โ€œThis is really our showpiece event every year,โ€ said Jim Tragakis, president of the Volunteer Fairfax Board of Directors about the awards. Established in 1993, the service awards celebrate the contributions volunteers make in their neighborhoods. โ€œItโ€™s neat to see the variety of things that people do and be able to recognize the vast scale of contribution that people make in their communities,โ€ Tragakis said.

Several of the winners and nominees were Annandale residents or part of an organization or group based in or with ties to the Annandale community. The won the award for volunteer group and Annandale resident Debbie Heitzer, who volunteered at Food for Others, received the award for Adult Volunteer, Over 250 hours. โ€œIt was an honor to even be nominated,โ€ said Heitzer. โ€œIโ€™ve had a rough time lately, but thisโ€ฆ I truly love what I do. Thereโ€™s always someone [at Food for Others] to cheer me up.โ€

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Dozens were honored for the non-competitive 2011 Benchmark Awards, which recognizes residents who gave 100, 250, 500 or 1,000 hours or more in the past year to their nominating agency.

The 152 award nominees in 13 competitive categories included individuals, organizations and groups from across the county. According to Volunteer Fairfax, this yearโ€™s nominees volunteered 237, 877 hours of service to the Northern Virginia community. โ€œThe people that weโ€™re recognizing donโ€™t do what they do for recognition. They do it because they care,โ€ Tragakis said.

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โ€œVolunteers are the backbone of many nonprofits. They work tirelessly and give and give. Very seldom do we recognize the unsung heroes and thatโ€™s what we do here,โ€ said Jeanne Sanders, executive director of Volunteer Fairfax.

A portion of the funds for the event comes from Fairfax County through a partnership with Volunteer Fairfax. For the first time, each district supervisor selected a volunteer from their district to receive a Community Champion award honoring individuals or groups for their community advocacy.ย  Karey Starnes received the Community Champion award for the Mason District, Braddock District Supervisor John Cook chose Skip Chaples for the Braddock District the Community Champion award and Food for Others received the Community Champion award for the Providence District.

In Fairfax County Chairman Sharon Bulovaโ€™s absence, Mason District Supervisor and Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Penelope Gross presented Tragakis and Volunteer Fairfax with a proclamation on behalf of the board naming Thursday, April 14 as Volunteer Recognition Day in Fairfax County.

In her address to the audience, Sanders said the face of volunteerism is changing and the demographic is getting younger as parents sign up children as young as age three to volunteer. โ€œIt teaches children that volunteering is not only fun, but even the smallest hand can have a big impact,โ€ Sanders said of the program Give Together, which was established last year to fulfill the requests from parents for opportunities for their children.

Volunteer Fairfax also created a last year to create the inaugural Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), an international volunteer day geared toward youth ages 8 to 25. GYSD will take place in various locations throughout the county on Saturday, Apr. 16.

Cynne Simpson with ABC7/WJLA-TV anchor served as master of ceremonies for the event and each of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors from the nine districts were in attendance. C.D. Glin, director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Partnerships with the Peace Corps, delivered the ceremonyโ€™s keynote.

Westminsterโ€™s Builderโ€™s Club was nominated for a Youth Volunteer Group award. Individual Annandale volunteers who were nominated included: Jenna Truong, who volunteered at the and was nominated for the Youth Volunteer and Youth Benchmark 100 awards; Karen Ralph, who volunteered at FACETS and was nominated for the Benchmark 250 award; Keith Peyton, who volunteered with the Fairfax County Park Authority and was nominated for the Senior Volunteer and Benchmark 250 awards; Maria Paz de Juan, who volunteered at Volunteer Interpreter Program and Stronger Together Supervised Visitation and Exchange Program, and is nominated for the Adult Volunteer 250 and Over Bench 250 awards; Ted Ralph, who volunteered at FACETS and was nominated for a Benchmark 500 award; and Tracy Flynn, who volunteered at the Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program and was nominated for the Adult Volunteer 250 and over award.


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