|
Partners in Public Service (PIP) Awards
 Group Winner
Individual Winner
Youth Winner
Retiring Winners
Honorable Mention Winners
Other Public Service Awards
United Way Volunteer of the Year
Any volunteer will say that they don't donate their time to be awarded. Volunteers love their work, and Pinellas County loves them because they help with everything from pushing paper to shoveling mulch.
During 2006, county volunteers donated 98,208 hours of service. If they each made $18.77 an hour, that would equate to a value of $1.8 million. This is equivalent to 47 full time employees.
Partners in Public Service (PIP) Awards were presented to five teams who regularly volunteer at Pinellas County Extension, Weedon Island Preserve and Heritage Village.
 top of page
The following youth and individuals also earned awards.
Extension Dept. – Group Winner
Rogers Davidson and another Master Gardener volunteer, Albert Baker, The Lobby/Koi Pond Group, maintain the indoor koi pond in the front lobby of the Pinellas County Extension. This entails careful selection of new plant materials, organizing plants by their cultural requirements and placing them for maximum esthetic effect. The display area around the pond is inspected weekly to scout for potential pest or disease problems and to rotate out and replace those plants that no longer look their best or that require a recovery period in the greenhouse. Rogers and Al also give generously of their time working with other Master Gardeners in the greenhouse and shadehouse, where plants are propagated and grown for the semi-annual Master Gardener plant sale and for display both indoors and on the grounds of the Extension and the Florida Botanical Gardens. Visitors to the greenhouse and shadehouse, and to the indoor container garden/koi pond display in the Extension lobby, often comment on the beauty and variety of our indoor plant displays. This frequently leads to an opportunity to provide visitors with information and educational materials, not just about indoor and container gardening but concerning many of the services provided by the Extension and by the Florid Botanical Gardens. Rogers and Al, through their efforts and dedication in this particular area, have inspired many guests to embrace new ideas and explore sometimes unique possibilities for container gardening in central Florida.
top of page
Brooker Creek - Individual Winner
 Ric Hoover, Jr. has volunteered for the Environmental Lands Division since 2002. The breadth and scope of his volunteer efforts are highly valued by Pinellas County staff and citizens alike. One of the projects he has been involved in includes laboring with a landscape contractor to put in the mini-wetland at the Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Ed Center. This area is used to educate citizens about one of the diverse ecosystems found in the Preserve. He has also picked up trash, pulled weeds, applied mulch and removed exotic plants where needed. Ric has assisted staff in planning for an upcoming exhibit about vultures, and participated in regular bird counts. He was very involved in the logistics for the 3rd Annual World Rivers Day Fest, a huge public event. Ric shows initiative in everything he does – from the mundane to the exciting. His contributions are deeply appreciated and serve as a model for the type of excellence that can be achieved through volunteerism.
top of page
Heritage Village – Youth Winner
Kara Wall is an outstanding Junior Docent for Heritage Village. She has studied detailed histories of Pinellas County and Florida history to provide fun, hands-on, active tours in several historic structures including the McMullen Log Cabin, Lowe Barn, Moore Grove House, Union Academy, Sulfur Springs Depot, Boyer Cottage and Safety Harbor Church. Kara also volunteers during festivals by assisting senior docents with tours in Plant Sumner and the House of Seven Gables. Kara's energetic smile and enthusiasm is always ready to get the job done! Her leadership role during Living History Summer Adventures Camp and in a new program offered to recreational groups - Passport Adventures - has helped with the success of these programs. . Kara's knowledge and enthusiasm for the Junior Docent program helped with on site training of new juniors, and added to the exciting program for our campers and visiting groups. Kara's attitude and enthusiasm as a Junior Docent for Heritage Village has helped to deliver fun programs for children and visiting groups that help preserve and share our local history, and inspire other youth by her leadership.
top of page
Heritage Village – Retiring Winners
 (Jeanine Blauvelt pictured) Twins, Jeanine Blauvelt and Joanne Zumpe, have served as volunteers at the Gulf Beaches Museum for a combined total 9 years. They are part of a group of gregarious women, known as the "Back Room Girls" who meet every week without fail to catalogue, file, maintain and display their history collection. The changing displays are known to be imaginative, educational and thought-provoking. This dynamic duo also volunteers in the museum gift shop - buying, displaying and filling the gift shop items. Most importantly, they both served on the Hospitality Committee, of which Jeanine was the chair, where they designed and made center pieces, decorated, set up and took down the three annual dinners, attended by 180 Friends of the Museum. Gulf Beaches Museum is the only solely “volunteer run” organization in the County. So volunteers have to be versatile, independent and creative self starters. Jeanine and Joanne, as "Back Room Girls", have been instrumental in keeping the museum history alive to its many visitors - both local and international. Additionally the annual Friends dinners where they partner with the Gulf Beaches library serve as a much anticipated educational and social event.
top of page
2008 PIPS Honorable Mention Winners
Susan Williams
Jessica Foster
Julia Burton
Elizabeth Piquet
Angela Strain
Jane Doyle
Wildflower Monitoring Team
Palm Harbor Library Team
Herb Garden/Cottage Garden MG Team
United Way Volunteer of the Year Nominees
top of page
Other Public Service Awards
In addition to the Winners above, the following individual was nominated for the 2008 United Way Volunteer of the Year.
 Joyce Pickering – Heritage Village Heritage Village is a 21 acre living history museum in Largo that is home to more than 25 historic structures nestled in a magnificent native landscape of pine trees and palmettos. A history museum holds the collective memory for a community – in the case of Heritage Village it houses the memory for the long and interesting history of Pinellas County. This memory is evidenced through the 25,000+ permanent collections of objects and in the significant holdings of the Heritage Village Archives & Library. This repository contains more than 10,000 photographs, 3500 volumes, thousands of postcards, rare books, city directories, school yearbooks, maps, family papers, scrapbooks and business ledgers. Joyce Pickering is a retired professional librarian. Often when people retire, they choose to volunteer in the community in new ways to give themselves completely new and different experiences. Joyce wanted to help an organization by putting her decades of professional expertise to work as a volunteer. But she also wanted a new experience layered into this volunteer work. She had been a school librarian. Rather than volunteering in a traditional community library or school library she sought out a way to combine her background with her passion for history. She sought out the Heritage Village Archives and Library that became the lucky recipient of her time, expertise and attention to detail. Her history passion then led her to focus on the object collection to be sure the important historical information was captured. With her dedication over the years the practices associated with the management of the permanent object collection have been implemented and become more professionalized. The Director of Heritage Village's dream from the beginning was to enhance and professionalize many aspects of the museum’s operation with the long-term goal to apply for accreditation by the American Association of Museums. This is the highest honor a museum can achieve to validate that is follows all national standards and guidelines. Thanks to Joyce’s dedication and tireless efforts this area of the museum is now professionalized and this year, Heritage Village will be submitting the paperwork to begin the process for accreditation. To put it simply, they are now ready in part because Joyce Pickering walked into Heritage Village 14 years ago and has continued to be a dedicated volunteer helping the Village reach its goals.
top of page |
|