Florida
Residents Receive President’s Volunteer Service
Awards!
The Volunteer Florida quarterly Commission meeting,
held Oct. 8 - 9 in Miami, presented an ideal opportunity to honor local
residents with President’s Volunteer Service Awards. Volunteers
engaged in board service for community-based organizations, environmental
projects, and disaster recovery activities were honored.
Three Miami residents honored for service
(Left
to Right) Myra Farr, Robin Diaz, and Orlando Casa
recieve the President's Volunteer Service Award from
Volunteer Florida CEO Wendy Spencer in Miami. >>
Myra Farr has been an
active force in Miami for 38 years. She is a life member of the Greater
Miami Jewish Federation where she serves on the board of directors,
and has served on numerous other boards over the course of her lifetime.
Her volunteer activities have ranged from board service to mentoring
to fundraising. Farr received a Lifetime Call to Service Award, which
requires 4,000 hours of service over the course of a lifetime.
Robin Diaz has volunteered at Bill
Baggs Cape Florida State Park since 2003, and for the past four years
has ontributed more than 1,400 hours of her time. Robin has diligently
been assisting the park biologist in performing bird and butterfly surveys,
leading groups of birders from the Tropical Audubon Society, and assisting
in a multi-year study of fall bird migration in South Florida. Diaz received
a gold award for serving 500 hours or more over the course of a 12-month
period
During the 2005 Hurricane Season, Orlando Caso assisted
literally hundreds of families by visiting their homes, assessing damage,
documenting repair needs, and providing recommendations to ease families’ suffering.
Orlando also educated “S.T.E.P.S. in the Right Direction,” a
local nonprofit, about roofing, roof repairs, construction, South Florida
building codes and other requirements. Caso earned a silver award for
serving at least 250 hours over a 12-month period
Wakulla residents earn Call to Service Awards
for environmental work
 Yellowstone National Park is home to
bears, wolves, bison and elk. For 10 years, Tony Holbrook and
his wife, Johanna, served
as “Campground
Hosts” and volunteered their time and talents to the protection
of this National treasure. They were instrumental in helping with the
wolf reintroduction program and worked tirelessly to educate people
about the animals that roamed freely throughout the park. As the fall
rut of the elk started, they spent many hours assisting rangers by helping
to keep the public at a safe distance from the large and sometimes-dangerous
bull elk. Mr. Holbrook also assisted in many "animal jams" where
the tourists had left their cars blocking the road in order to see
whatever animal happened to be near by.
“Only about 5 percent of Yellowstone is viewed from the roads,” said
Mr. Holbrook. “The other 95 percent is patrolled by rangers on horseback … Most
of my patrol work was done with my motorcycle.
“One day in Mammoth Campground while I was watching
a herd of elk, I was surprised to observe that virtually all of the
elk were looking at me. This was unusual, so I looked behind me and there
was a sow bear with a cub about six feet behind me. I slowly walked
away. The bear was obviously interested in the elk calves and not me,” said
Mr. Holbrook. “My
wife and I had many interesting adventures during the past 10 years
and met people from all over the world. We recommend that people apply
to the various parks around the country for volunteer service.”
Mr. Holbrook and his wife now reside in Wakulla County.
The President’s Lifetime Call to Service is an
award for volunteer service that every American – from every age
and every walk of life – can
aspire to achieve. The award is issued by the President’s Council
on Service and Civic Participation, a group created to recognize the
valuable contributions volunteers are making to our nation.
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