2011 STAR Award Employee Group Winners: United Auto Workers

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Jef Rietsma | The Kalamazoo Gazette

Photo by Jerry Campbell

KALAMAZOO — Dick Knowlton said he was a bit embarrassed after finding out he and some other workers from the former General Motors Corp. Stamping Plant were chosen as recipients of a 2011 STAR Award.
Usually a man of few words, Knowlton had plenty to say about the commitment a group of about 15 workers made nearly three decades ago when United Auto Workers 488 formed a Veterans Committee.

“It was 1986, the work was good and a group of us felt we needed to do something to help our veterans,” said Knowlton, a 66-year-old Kalamazoo resident and three-year Army veteran, who was stationed in Germany in the mid-1960s. “We didn’t do all this in hopes of getting recognized by the paper. It was just the right thing to do.”
The group approached the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Battle Creek, and the result was a partnership in which the volunteers work with the patients and greet visitors at the hospital.
That relationship has continued even after production at the GM plant, located on Sprinkle Road in Comstock Township, ended in 1997.

In recognition of their efforts, the former plant employees have earned a STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award in the category of Employee Volunteer Group.

“It brings us all a lot of gratification to know we are making some lives better,” Knowlton said.

Partnering with patients

At the center, the former plant employees created an Ambassador/Greeter Program, in which they work in tandem with patients to provide information and greet and escort visitors and incoming patients. Knowlton said the program has helped provide a positive first impression for newcomers to the hospital.
“It never hurts to be greeted by a friendly face … someone who can be helpful,” he said.
Nancy Babcock, chief of the medical center’s community and volunteer services, said the program is important because the volunteers work with patients in the hospital’s Compensated Work Therapy Program. That program helps patients improve their skills to get a job.

“The support of the UAW through volunteer time, and in-kind and monetary donations in the past year, has helped to further our patient-centered care philosophy,” Babcock said. “Their support has enhanced the environment of care and the lives of our veteran patients.”

The UAW volunteers also are involved in other ways.

They participate in the hospital’s annual summer picnic, patient carnival, provide items to the hospital’s snack cart and help wrap and distribute Christmas gifts. Many have provided financial and in-kind donations, such as purchasing the large-screen televisions located throughout the center’s day rooms.
Money raised through a raffle organized by the volunteers was used to buy a pontoon boat. The boat is popular during the summer months, when patients and the UAW volunteers cruise Goguac Lake.

Knowlton said a lot of friendships have emerged from the partnership with the hospital, evidenced by some of the volunteers traveling nearly 100 miles round-trip to participate in the program.

“We’ve all said that it could be any one of us in there some time down the road, and we think about how much we’d appreciate the effort some group might take to make our lives a bit brighter,” Knowlton said.

2011 STAR Award Adult Group Winners: First Congregational United Church of Christ of Kalamazoo

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Chris Killian | The Kalamazoo Gazette 

KALAMAZOO — Matthew Laney, pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ, has a suggestion for the STAR award presented to a group of his parishioners.
“If we could, we’d like to give the award back to Jesus,” he said.
Even though there won’t be an actual handoff of the award, in a way, the 20 members of the church group are giving the award back to their savior after a year of volunteering and sharing God’s love and grace with hundreds of local residents.
“When people experience the gifts of God’s grace, they want to share it with others,” Laney said. “We are never closer to God than when we give of ourselves. We share the same grace we’ve received.
“There is an expectation here that the church will be involved in God’s work. The worship might end, but the service continues.”

From tutoring children at Arcadia Elementary School to staffing the church’s day-care center to helping feed the area’s hungry through Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, the group volunteered some 3,700 hours at 11 agencies in 2010.
In recognition of their efforts, the group has earned a STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award in the category of Adult Volunteer Group.
For Diane Roberts, volunteering at Arcadia Elementary School through a partnership with Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo helped fill a void in her life. In 2009, she lost her job and found herself with lots of free time.
So she got involved at the school, beginning a basic knitting class for small groups of students, many of whom didn’t even know how to hold knitting needles.
Soon, however, the kids were knitting on their own, eventually making 560 tiny caps for newborn babies at Bronson Methodist Hospital.

“I think I got more out of it than they did,” said Roberts, described by her fellow group members as the spark that keeps them going. “I know that I’m making a difference.”
The church’s program at Arcadia started with three volunteers, but several more joined the group in fall 2009.

“By winter of 2010 more people volunteered in different capacities, and the numbers continue to grow as the success at Arcadia, a direct result of the attention and skills of the volunteers, is measured in improvement in the Arcadia students’ academic skills, behavior and attendance,” said Coco Cook, who nominated the group for the award and is director of marketing and tutoring for Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo.
“At First Congregational, God’s command to feed the hungry, care for the homeless and provide for the children is taken seriously.”

Reaching out

Another church volunteer is Bob Morris, who leads a birdhouse-building class, which is not only fun for the students but incorporates the math principles they are learning. He has students measure sides, angles and calculate the size of the birdhouse they are constructing.
“It’s contagious,” Morris said of the church group’s activities. “We feed off the good we are doing. It’s just wonderful.”
Other agencies also have benefited from the group’s efforts.
Volunteers have worked with Housing Resources Inc. and Open Doors, organizations that help the homeless and low-wage workers support themselves and secure affordable housing. Group members also have volunteered to rehabilitate homes.

Then there is the church’s day-care program, which has been operating for 20 years. Open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, the program provides low-income parents with a free place to send their kids while they apply for jobs or go to appointments.
Members of the group and other church parishioners volunteer to staff the day-care facility, which is almost always full.

Other members of the church, which has a long history of volunteerism and advocating for social justice issues, also have stepped forward on the charitable front.

The church’s Deacon’s Fund, an extra collection during services, which originally was established to help with the needs of parishioners, is now being used to help needy members of the community with utility bills, rent and transportation costs. Last year, the church contributed $16,556 to area assistance agencies.
“We have a saying at our church: ‘God is still speaking,’” said Howard Tejchma, a group member who has volunteered with Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Greater Kalamazoo and tutored and mentored children.
“When we do our work we are hearing him speak. We are encountering God.”

2011 STAR Award College Group Winner: Kalamazoo Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools Servant Leaders

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

Photo courtesy of Jerry Campbell | Kalamazoo Gazette

By Jeff Rietsma | Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — Volunteers who have been a part of a literacy-based summer program the past three summers were forced to discontinue the session due to lack of funding.

Demarra Gardner, who has overseen the Kalamazoo Freedom School since it was introduced in the summer of 2008, said she and volunteers will use the summer to regroup and plan a return in 2012.
Freedom Schools, which emerged in predominately African-American communities in the south in the 1960s, have experienced a mild resurgence nationally and are overseen by the Children’s Defense Fund.
Gardner said the curriculum adopted by Freedom School is patterned after a national model. There are about 140 Freedom Schools nationwide.

“For three years, Kalamazoo’s Freedom School provided strong literacy and character support for school-age children. We have been able to take key components from that program and we’re coming back next year,” said Gardner, a 30-year-old Kalamazoo resident.

For the devotion Gardner and a group of volunteer college students have committed to Kalamazoo Freedom School over the past three years, they have been named winners of the 2011 STAR award in the college volunteer group category.

Gardner is undeterred by the fact that Freedom School will not return in 2011. As Gardner indicated, she and volunteers — which have comprised an average of about a dozen college students each of its three years in Kalamazoo — are planning to stage a similar program in 2012.
“We’re trying to position ourselves for longevity and this summer will give us a chance to plan, lay the foundation so that we can come back even stronger than ever,” she said.
“We’ve come so far with too many families in three years to not keepthe momentum going.”

The 2012 program is being crafted to service about 200 students.
Gradner, who has spent her entire working years in the not-for-profit sector, said securing funding for the 2012 program is in the works, although she said it is premature to elaborate until commitments are firmly in place.
Attendance at the three previous Freedom Schools in Kalamazoo has varied based on funding. It took in 48 students in 2008, 82 in 2009 and 54 in 2010.

Classroom-based activities have taken place at various locations, thanks to a partnership with Kalamazoo Public Schools.
It took about $75,000 to fund a 12-week Freedom School program for 50 students, who attend class free of charge. The first six weeks was spent for volunteers to receive adequate training, while the second half took place in the classroom with students.

Contributions in the past have come from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, United Way, the Northside Ministerial Alliance the Right For Kids Foundation and the Upjohn Foundation.
While Freedom School is a literacy-based program for students from kindergarten through 12th-graders, Gardner said its components include lessons in social justice, health, leadership development, and family and parental involvement.
While it would be easy to jump ship in light of there not being a 2011 program, Gardner said she believes in it and its students to the extent that she remains committed to a 2012 return, albeit in a modified manner.

”The core components are there and we’ve seen what works, so I’m excited when we can come back in 2012 and re-connect with the students who need the help the most,” she said.

“In the meantime, we’re going to work to keep families engaged … we have to.”

The volunteer college students are recruited from Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University.
Gardner said the job requires long hours and a firm commitment to education. She said landing quality volunteers was not a tough sell.

”We have high standards and I think prospective staff members see my enthusiasm and my excitement for Freedom School and they realize it’s a calling,” Gardner said.

“The program has had an impact on a lot of people; I know some staff members have changed their majors to education because they saw what a difference they could make in someone’s life.”

2011 STAR Awards Career Winner: Bonnie Carpenter

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Jef Rietsma | The Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — Bonnie Carpenter’s affiliation with Brownies and Girl Scouts started when she was in grade school. She never imagined her commitment to the organization would contin­ue nearly 50 years later. “It’s funny how things work out. … I never set out to dedicate so much time to the Scouts. It just sort of happened,” the Kalamazoo resident said.

Carpenter, 55, has earned the 2011 STAR award in the cat­egory of Career Volunteer. In addition to volunteering 1,200 hours with the Kalamazoo Pro­gram and Training Center of Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan, Carpenter logged 570 hours collectively with Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes and Bethel Baptist Church. Carpenter said it has been easy to support the Girl Scouts organization because its values are consistent with her own.

2011 STAR Awards Adult Winner: Karen King

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Fritz Klug | The Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — In early 1981, Karen King wrote a letter to the Kalamazoo Gazette in which she urged people to spay and neuter their cats and dogs in order to decrease the num­ber of unwanted offspring.

“Although fees for altering by area veterinarians vary greatly, there are many people who cannot afford even the low­est prices,” she wrote. “I hope that someday we see finan­cial help avail­able to these people.” Within weeks, her wish became a re­ality when King plunked down $200 toward the cause.

“It just kind of snowballed from there,” said King, who parlayed her concerns for ani­mal welfare into Animal’s Best Friend Fund Inc., which helped spay or neuter 39,432 cats and dogs in Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties through Janu­ary 2011.

“At this time (1981), no one, not even the Kalamazoo Hu­mane Society, had such a pro­gram,” wrote Arlene Guthrie,one of the first people to offer her help to King by recom­mending an attorney to pre­pare documents that made Animal’s Best Friend a non­profit organization.

“Karen kept pushing and emphasizing the need and im­portance of this issue, citing the 7,000 (or more) cats and dogs being killed each year at Kalamazoo County Animal Control,” Guthrie wrote in her nomination of King.

Also nominating King for a STAR Award were Donna Schlarman and James Shillito.

“Animal’s Best Friend is a gi­ant of a tiny organization due to Karen’s persistent dedica­tion to these pets and their owners,” Schlarman wrote in her nomination.

The program is basically a fundraising effort, with 90 per­cent of what is raised going to 13 veterinarians in the two counties served by Animal’s Best Friend to subsidize neu­tering procedures.

The 200 to 300 volunteers King has recruited to help her have found many ways to raise money, including sponsoring seven bake sales a year at Pet Supplies Plus, 5230 S. Westnedge Ave., in Portage.

That’s where Shillito has been purchasing cookies for several years.

“I was quite impressed with what she was doing when I found out she was running the whole show herself,” he said.

Do it yourself

King, 56, said she started giving spay-or-neuter gift certificates to her friends for Christmas for their pets. But after her friends had done their part to curb pet overpopulation, she began looking for a way to assist others.

When she was unable to find another organization that did that, her husband, Bill, suggested she start her own, and that’s when she put down the $200 to start Animal’s Best Friend.

It hasn’t always been easy to find people to support her cause, King said, with many preferring to give to organizations that find homes for animals.

Animal’s Best Friend began by paying the whole bill for cash-strapped individuals who agreed to have their pets spayed or neutered, but within a few months it began to allot money to veterinarians to subsidize a portion of people’s bills, King said.

By the end of 1981, the program had assisted in paying for 334 animals to be neutered, doling out about $5,200.

The following year, the number of pets neutered more than doubled. Contributions also increased considerably.

“She organized a program of advertising for donations of money, crafts and baked goods to be sold at a volunteer business,” Shillito wrote in his nomination of King. “These wonderful volunteers now number over 220, and in 2010 have brought in over $69,000.”

Tireless efforts

King, who also publishes a member newsletter six times a year, said she has no plans to retire from Animal’s Best Friend.

“I’ll still be doing this till they put me in the grave,” King said. “I really believe this is what I was put here to do.”

2011 STAR Awards Youth Winner: Danielle Melgar

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Rebecca Roe | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

Photo by Jerry Campbell | Special to the Gazette

PORTAGE — It is almost difficult to grasp the vast amount of time 16-year-old Danielle Melgar has spent helping others in her lifetime. Last year alone she performed 212 hours of volunteer work for a number of local organizations.

An academic standout, Melgar is a 4.0 student at Portage Northern High School. She also participates in the forensics team and as well as the varsity soccer and cross-country teams. Melgar works part time as well, but despite her packed schedule, she always finds time to volunteer.

“I get a really good feeling when I help other people,” Melgar said. “Not that there’s nothing else to do with my time, but I’d rather be doing that than getting caught up in a lot of things that other high schoolers do.”

In recognition of all her extraordinary volunteer work, Danielle Melgar has been awarded a STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award in the category of Youth Volunteer. Her father, Tom Melgar, nominated her. “We’re definitely very proud of her,” Melgar said.

He explained that his daughter has been interested in volunteer work from a very young age and dislikes having free time on her hands.

“She’s self-motivated, and we don’t really have to do anything to have her do this; she just does it all on her own,” he said.

“She was always very interested in volunteer work and helping, but I think when she saw how much of a difference volunteers made on our lives and on Austin’s life, I think it really inspired her to do even more,” Melgar said.

Austin, Danielle’s brother, was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma in 2005 when he was 4½ years old; he passed away in 2008.

“A lot of us were paralyzed, and it’s coming on three years now, and still I find it hard to do a lot of things,” Tom Melgar said. “But Danielle found inspiration in that and in everything she does, from her soccer and cross-country and volunteer work; she goes out and she does it better because of that. Whereas the rest of us are kind of still injured from the loss, Danielle is inspired by it and goes further.”

In the spring of 2010, Danielle traveled to the Dominican Republic with her family to volunteer.

“We decided on that because my parents are both physicians, so we were offering medical care there,” she said. “With my whole family kind of getting involved in that sort of thing, it’s really easy to find those opportunities.”

Danielle assisted physicians, nurses and pharmacists, did patient intake and triage in Spanish, guided patients to the lab and pharmacy and looked after children while their mothers were examined.

She also spent time teaching English to children and running camps for children in villages and at the orphanage. In the evenings, she would read to, play games with and care for the younger children at the orphanage.

After her trip to the Dominican Republic, Danielle decided she wanted to pursue a career in international medicine.

In 2010, Melgar also worked on a home for Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity and at a fundraising sale for an education fund for two orphaned children.

She baked cookies with children at the Kalamazoo Hospitality House on Christmas Eve, she was a Salvation Army bell ringer, and at the Peace House, she did landscaping, plumbing and planted an orchard.

Danielle also recruited several high school students to volunteer at Austin’s Cancer Crushing Carnival, a carnival in memory of her brother for children with cancer. More than 600 people attended.

It’s hard to measure the depth of caring and desire to help others that Danielle possesses and the lengths that she’ll go to do that.

During 2008 and 2009 she grew her hair so she could donate it. In May 2009, just a few days before her 15th birthday, Danielle donated all of her hair to Locks of Love.

Although only 10 inches of hair was required for the donation and she had 12 to 15 inches, Danielle chose to donate it all.

She challenged the crowd at the CureSearch walk in Portage that year to make donations in support of her shaving her head. Danielle’s goal was twofold, to raise money and serve as a reminder to those who saw her that a lot more needs to be done for childhood cancer. With $2,000 donated, she shaved her head down to the skin.

This remarkable teen hopes that volunteering and helping others always will be a part of her life.

“I think if you can make the life of at least one person better just because of something you’ve done, that’s a real accomplishment,” Danielle said. “It just feels so good, and even though you go out with the intent of helping other people, you end up getting just as much help for your own life.”

2011 STAR Awards College Winner: KaiLi Cage

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Chris Killian | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

Photo by Jerry Campbell | Special to the Gazette

KALAMAZOO — KaiLi Cage stumbled onto a surprising discovery when she was in seventh grade, the significance of which has remained with her to this day.

It was a videotape of her mother giving birth to Cage’s younger sister, and, after watching it, it left an indelible mark on Cage, 23, a mark that has led her to nurture those near the end of their lives and inspire others just beginning to write their own life story.

“It was amazing me,” she said of the tape. “It’s amazing to witness and be a part of bringing another life into this world. It’s so important to be part of someone’s life — to nurture them, care for them, believe in them.”

That desire to help others led Cage to volunteer with several organizations in Kalamazoo in 2010, spending time in the nursery at Mt. Zion Baptist Church and with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Kalamazoo.

But the overwhelming amount of time she spent as a volunteer was at Borgess Medical Center, an experience that profoundly changed her and, she hopes, those she helped as well.

For her efforts, Cage, 23, a fourth-year student at Western Michigan University, has earned a STAR Award in the College Volunteer category.

In the nearly 500 hours of volunteering she performed at Borgess, Cage was intimately involved in some of the most difficult moments in a family’s life. In the hospital’s critical care unit, she sat with families who had members in serious surgeries, tending to their needs and letting the nurses know how they were doing.

“She is dependable, mature, professional and compassionate,” said Kathy Praedel, director of volunteer services at Borgess, who nominated Cage for the award. “Her warm personality and smile put our critical care patients’ family members at ease.”

Cage was so good in her position in the critical care unit that Praedel asked if she wanted to work with the hospital’s ‘No One Dies Alone’ program, where volunteers sit with terminally ill patients while their families leave for a break from the stress of seeing a loved one in their last days of life.

She read Bible verses, listened to the radio and watched television with patients near the end of their struggles.

She experienced the humanity of being close to someone who looked back on a life lived, an experience what she said shattered stereotypes for both her and the patients she tended.

“I thought it’d be hard, that I’d freak out,” Cage said. “But it was overwhelmingly enlightening. I got to know someone for last few moments of life.

“Whatever life they were able to live, they shared a few moments with me.”

The maturity that enabled Cage to volunteer in such intimate circumstances was born out of experiences she had earlier in her life.

Born in Grand Rapids, Cage and her family moved to California when she was in second grade.

As the years rolled on and her single mother worked jobsto keep the family afloat, Cage found herself becoming a mother figure to her two younger siblings.

She worked extra hours to make money to help out with groceries and bills. She got her brother involved in football and drove both siblings from place to place.

“It matured me a lot,” she said. “It was stressful, but it made me a responsible person, a goal oriented person.”

Once Cage — the first in her family to attend college — graduates next year from WMU, where she is double majoring in biomedical sciences and Spanish, she will embark on another educational journey, one that she believes will enable her to fully tend the nurturing fire that burns within her.

She is planning on heading to medical school, where she wants to study obstetrics and genecology. She wants to help bring more lives into the world, lives that she said she wants to nurture and help and believe in.

“I just enjoy being able to help other people,” she said. “I’m the caring provider type of person. I feel like that’s the place I need to be in.”

2011 STAR Awards Special Recognition for Outstanding Youth Leadership: Essayists/Videographers/Organizers For President Obama’s Visit to Kalamazoo Central High School

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Rebecca Roe | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

Kelsey Wilson, Machlin Fink and Bridin Clements prepare a script during the filming of their Race to the Top video.

KALAMAZOO — Not many students can claim to be re­sponsible for bringing the pres­ident to town to speak at their high school commencement, but a dynamic group of leaders from Kalamazoo Central High School can.

In just eight weeks, these students spent 175 hours on the school’s effort to win the first White House Race to the Top High School Com­mencement Challenge: Kelsey Wilson, MacKenzie DeWitt, Nicole Allen, Thomas Groes­beck, Machlin Fink, Cara Cun­­liffe, Bridin Clements, Simon Boehme, Kelsey Socha, Justin Kelley, Gwynn Walker, Mara Johnson, Michael Borskowski, Madison Pitts, Alejandra Zafra Hernandez and Randa Elian.

“Not a single person could have done this alone,” said Simon Boehme, a 19-year-old University of Michigan fresh­man who was KCHS 2010 sa­lutatorian. “I have received a lot of credit for making this happen but in no way, shape or form could any one person do it. We all came together.”

In recognition of their work, the group received a 2011 STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award in the Special Recog­nition for Outstanding Youth Leadership category.

Ann Miller, the Kalamazoo Central High library-media specialist who nominated the group, said it was a phenom­enal community effort.

“Everyone had ownership of the process and with that own­ership came a lot of incredible things,” Miller said.

“It was just an absolute mas­sive undertaking that really created a lot of friendships and I think brought the school together in a very unique way,” Boehme said.

Each person who worked on the project grew in a num­ber of ways and gained from the experience, said Boehme, who is championing the 2011 Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge and has met with Obama at the White House.

“I think they really exude what the young people of this generation can truly do,” he said. “If people would see the dedication, the persever­ance and the work that I saw, they would be impressed, they would be so proud to say that these students went through Kalamazoo. We showed off to the world, I mean literally, on

the national and international stage, why our school is special.”

Working on the project was an uplifting experience for 18-year-old KCHS senior Kelsey Wilson, who was one of three juniors in the group last year.

“The Commencement Challenge kind of got me excited for what’s after high school and how I’m being prepared in high school for college,” she said.

“The planning was actually rigorous. It was something I had never been through before,” Wilson said. “I’ve never put so many hours into one project, and I’ve never had so much hope for one project.”

The president’s visit still is very much talked about today, said 18-year-old senior Mac- Kenzie DeWitt.

“We hear about it at school, and it has kind of created a standard for our school, for our community.”

As juniors, DeWitt and Wilson knew they wouldn’t be up on stage shaking Obama’s hand, but that didn’t deter them from playing an integral role in the group.

“It meant just as much to us because it gave us a chance to appreciate our school and appreciate the people that we’re surrounded by on a daily basis,” DeWitt said.

“You don’t understand how wonderful your school is until you get to step back and look and say, ‘You know, when you really examine what we have it’s a really great community and it’s something that’s really special.’”

2011 Priority Health Senior Impact Award

Honoring senior volunteers who make a difference in their communities

The Priority Health Senior Impact Award recognizes senior volunteers who put their energy and commitment to work in their communities.

View last year’s winners.

Your nonprofit could earn $1,000!

Priority Health is partnering with the United Way and the Volunteer Centers of Michigan to recognize volunteers in these areas:

• Area 1 – Northern Michigan, including the U.P.
• Area 2 – Eastern Michigan (Saginaw, greater Detroit, Ann Arbor, south to the Ohio state line)
• Area 3 – West Michigan (Lakeshore from Pentwater to the Indiana state line)
• Area 4 – Central Michigan (Lansing and south)

Community leaders will select four outstanding volunteers to receive the Senior Impact Award (one from each area.) Along with the recognition, a donation of $1,000 will be given to the nonprofit organization where each Senior Impact honoree volunteers.

Nominations for 2011 are open

The Priority Health Senior Impact Award is open to all Michigan residents age 63 and older who volunteer for a nonprofit organization.

Nominate a senior today!

• Download the nomination form (260KB PDF).
• Use their online form. *Link will take you to the
• Nomination forms are available at many senior organizations and at your local Volunteer Centers.
• Nominations are due by June 1, 2011.
• Honorees will be selected in August 2011. Winners will be notified by phone, email or US postal service.

Eligibility

• Employees of Priority Health, their employees and individuals living in the same household as a Priority Health employee are not eligible.
• Nonprofit organizations funded by the State of Michigan or an affiliate of Priority Health are not eligible for the $1,000 donation.

Legal conditions

Priority Health is not responsible for late, lost, stolen, misdirected, misaddressed, incomplete or ineligible entries.

Nominator agrees that the Nomination Form and Volunteer Narrative and/or the originals thereof shall be and remain the exclusive property of Priority Health.

Nominator releases Priority Health, its employees and affiliated individuals from any and all liability, claims, demands and causes of action of whatsoever nature, including but not limited to claims of negligence against Priority Health from or in any way related to the release of its narrative. 

Questions?

Call Pamela Mulliner at 616 464-8680 or email awards@priorityhealth.com.

2011 STAR Awards Senior Category Winner: Keith Mortlock

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Dave Person | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — Keith Mortlock knows he can’t go on forever, so he is training the next generation of Red Cross volunteers.

In the meantime, he fills a vital leadership role with the Greater Kalamazoo Area American Red Cross, particularly its Disaster Action Team both in Southwest Michigan and in other parts of the country.

Mortlock, who managed a warehouse filled with donated supplies in New Jersey after the 9-11 terrorist attack, has run shelters and headed up logistics during 14 other disaster-relief operations, such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires, around the country.

Although he doesn’t put his life on the line, he does put it on hold for up to three weeks at a time in order to improve the conditions of others.

“They don’t send us out in dangerous situations,” he said. “Our job is to shelter people who need that for a short period … make sure they have a way to get food and give them a change of clothing.”

For the more than 1,000 hours he put in during 2010 in assisting the Red Cross, Mortlock, 74, is this year’s Senior Volunteer STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award winner.

“He has been with us for more than 10 years, and his work is of the highest caliber,” said Vicki Eichstaedt, regional director for community relations for the local Red Cross, which nominated Mortlock for the STAR Award. “He is always willing to help, and he is truly dedicated to making sure that the mission and service delivery of the Red Cross goes beyond Keith Mortlock and beyond his generation of volunteers.”

Eichstaedt praised Mortlock for his leadership and “can-do” attitude.

“And he’s got an absolute heart of gold,” she said.

The Red Cross cited other reasons why Mortlock was deserving of a STAR Award. They are:

– Mentoring new volunteers upon their addition to the Disaster Action Team.

– Creating Personal Disaster Response packets.

– Relaying calls from dispatch to deploy emergency volunteers.

“There is not a single new or existing volunteer in the past 10 years who has not been impacted by the work Keith has done and continues to do,” the Red Cross nomination statement reads.

Mortlock takes his turn being on-call for the Red Cross, which is most frequently called upon locally to assist people displaced by fires.

“There are so many things people can volunteer for that are important, but to me, responding to a disaster held a little more interest,” he said.

When the call comes in for the Red Cross’s Critical Response Team, volunteers such as Mortlock have to be ready to go, day or night.

“We have to be able to move and be out of town in four hours,” he said.

For Mortlock, that’s not a serious problem. “I can pack and get ready to go … in eight minutes,” he said. And he has an understanding wife, Rosanne, who tells him to be careful and then sends him on his way.

Mortlock owned his own business, Kalamazoo Automotive Refinishers Supply, for 25 years, during which time he prepared his employees to take over the company, he said.

“I’d reached a point that I knew the people I employed were capable of running the business themselves,” he said.

“They (the Red Cross) knew I could leave work … so I started doing a lot of the daytime calls.”

Mortlock, who is now retired, said he enjoys volunteering because he wants others to be able to enjoy life the way he has.

“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “I’ve had everything I needed and wanted in life. It was time to give back.”