The United Way of the Greater Clarksville Region held its 2011 Annual Membership Meeting and Awards Ceremony at Gateway Medical Center’s Liberty Room on March 2nd, 2011.
The evening’s festivities included dinner and elections for new board members and officers. Newly elected members of the board include Mr. Norm Brumblay, Facilities Manager with Clarksville-Montgomery County School System; Ms. Melinda Earl-Conwell, President of Houston County Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Phil Harpel, Chief of Staff for Montgomery County Government; Mr. Richard Jackson, V.P. of Financial Affairs and Strategic Planning at Austin Peay State University; Mr. Kevin Rau, Director of Materials Management at Gateway Medical Center; Dr. Gregory Stallworth, Fort Campbell Economic Development Director; Mr. Terry Strange, Site Manager and Director for Hemlock Semiconductor, L.L.C. and Mr. Brad Taylor, Financial Compliance and Information Systems Specialist for Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation.
The event is held each year to recognize and honor businesses and individuals in the community for their involvement and support of the organization’s work in Montgomery, Houston, and Stewart Counties and the Fort Campbell Area.
The highlight of the evening, as always, was the presentation of campaign awards, including the prestigious Ben C. Parks Award.
Established in 1990, the Ben C. Parks Award recognizes the company or business that has conducted the top overall in-house campaign. The winner is selected by the volunteers serving on the campaign cabinet based on several criteria, including the percentage of employee giving potential achieved, increase in giving over the last year, number of leadership donors, as well as other factors. The award was named in honor of Mr. Ben C. Parks, who faithfully demonstrated his full support of the mission of our United Way and its member agencies.
This year, five companies were nominated for the prestigious Award: Cumberland Bank & Trust, Green Bank, Heritage Bank, Legends Bank and Planters Bank. After careful deliberation, Legends Bank was named the Ben C. Parks Award winner for 2010.
A number of other awards to honor outstanding achievements of businesses, agencies, and volunteers were also presented during the event.
The Ambassador’s Award recognizes the CEO or company president or manager who has demonstrated an individual commitment to the local United Way and set an example of leadership for his or her employees by promoting support and involvement with their United Way, both in the workplace and in the community. Mr. Masami (Matt) Kikuchi, President and CEO of Bridgestone Metalpha, USA was honored with the presentation of this year’s Ambassador’s Award.
The Directors’ Award honors an agency that most fully exemplifies the qualities of a partner agency. Judged each year by the members of the United Way Board of Directors, the honor is measured by several criteria, including performance and commitment to better and more effectively serve our community, its support and promotion of the United Way and its partnership, and its faithfulness in maintaining the high standards required of partner agencies and in fulfilling its contractual commitment with the United Way.
Four agencies were in the running for this year’s Directors’ Award: Bethesda Mission, Adult Literacy Council and Progressive Directions, Inc. The agency selected as the recipient of this year’s Directors’ Award was Progressive Directions, Inc.
The Campaigning toward Potential Award recognizes the business, company, or agency that achieved the highest percentage of employee giving potential during the campaign year. This year this achievement award goes to the employees of US Bank, whose giving for the 2010-2011 campaign totaled an outstanding rate of 164% of their giving potential.
The outstanding performance of volunteers serving on the Campaign Cabinet and as coordinators who conduct the United Way Campaign within their company workplace were also recognized with presentations of the “Above and Beyond” Award. This award is based on several factors, including consistent attendance and participation at meetings and events, timeliness in fulfilling their responsibility, as well as criteria that set them apart, such as putting forth extra effort and creating and implementing special initiatives, as well as general enthusiasm in performing their role.
For their performance during the 2010-2011 Campaign the following were selected as recipients of the “Above and Beyond” Award; Velma Jo Williams, Adult Literacy Council; Brad Taylor, Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation; Lauren Staggs, City of Clarksville; Angie Gardner, Cumberland Bank & Trust; Amy Ely, Belk; Kathleen Hayes, Legends Bank and John Mucillo, Gateway Medical Center.
The Inspire Award honors and recognizes one company that led by example in planning and implementing a workplace campaign. This company created additional giving opportunities outside the normal workplace campaign. They motivated other businesses to step up and make a difference in the community by giving to the United Way. There were three nominees for this award; Hemlock Semiconductor, L.L.C., Gateway Medical Center and the City of Clarksville. This year’s 2010 Inspire Award was presented to the City of Clarksville.
The Outstanding Board Member Award was created to recognize an “Outstanding Board Member” and was judged by the United Way Board of Directors and staff. This year’s Outstanding Board Member award was presented to Ms. Elaine Jackson, Director of the Stewart County Coordinated School of Health for truly exemplifying what it means to serve on a volunteer board and for her unwavering dedication and invaluable service to the United Way.
Each year, the United Way hopes a new company will join the movement in advancing the common good. When it does occur, they are honored to give the “Way to Grow Award.” This year, there were four companies that were nominated for demonstrating considerable growth or for running a campaign for the first time. These companies are Domino’s Pizza, Gateway Medical Center, Cumberland Bank & Trust and Hemlock Semiconductor, L.L.C. This year’s 2010 co-winners are Gateway Medical Center and Hemlock Semiconductor, L.L.C.
Any time a person or a group partners with the United Way to help in any capacity, they like to say Thank You. When that person or group continually provides outstanding volunteer service with no thought of recognition of payment, they must offer an extra-special thank you. Therefore, the Volunteer of the Year Award was created. This year’s 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Mr. Richard Schillo of Crye-Leike, Realty for his volunteer efforts throughout the year.
The United Way of the Greater Clarksville Region and its Partner Agencies are thankful to all who volunteer and support the local non-profit agencies. Because of the generous donors and volunteers, over 97,000 community members throughout Montgomery, Houston and Stewart Counties and the Fort Campbell Area were offered help and given hope for a better life in 2009. Together, as a community, we can make changes and continue to be rooted in community commitment.
