2008 GVA Winners Announced

The Governor's Volunteer Awards have a long tradition of recognizing those in our state who devote their time and talents to serving others.

After a state-wide open nomination process, and a two-tiered selection process including a Review Committee and a Blue Ribbon Panel, the selected award winners are recognized in a private ceremony.

Each winner will receive two Southwest Airlines vouchers, courtesy of our sponsor, Southwest Airlines.

Cynthia Parker Robertson
Community Capacity Builder - Individual

Cynthia Parker Robertson was inspired by a natural community-builder named Lena Mae Farris. After Ms. Farris' death, Ms. Robertson honored the kind-hearted woman's legacy by creating a foundation in her name. Recognizing that senior citizens in rural areas can have enormous difficulty accessing services critical to their medical, nutritional, transportation and socialization needs, Ms. Robertson created the Lena Mae Farris Foundation (LMFF) to address these needs in the Grimes County and Brazos Valley areas.

LMFF's mission is to serve the underserved and vulnerable seniors and other adults in rural Texas. LMFF provides seniors with access to an expanding network of valuable programs, all aimed at improving their lives while increasing their independence and self-sufficiency. Under Robertson's leadership, the foundation continually accesses the needs of their target audience and works with other community support organizations and volunteers to expand services as needed. As an example, in 2007 the transportation program delivered rides to over 1,386 destinations in Grimes County and the Brazos Valley. The volunteers, who are the heart of this program, donated 1,122 hours and drove over 17,000 miles.

Bennett Chapel Family Outreach Ministries
Community Motivator- Community

Located on the eastern border of Texas, this small church of twenty-six families has adopted seventy-six children between the ages of three and eighteen. These children were formerly in the foster care system in the state of Texas. Through the leadership of Bishop W.C. and Donna Martin, the ministry reaches out to adopted children and other community youth through various projects including the Pineywood Outreach Center.

The center provides after-school programs, summer programs, family support, food distribution, tutoring and mentoring in partnership with other churches and the Deep East Texas Council of Governments. Many involved in these programs are volunteers from the adoptive families and other families in the community. Bennett Chapel Family Outreach Ministries has worked tirelessly to engage their east Texas community and has found success in their partnerships.

Lovejoy Middle School, Lake Lavon Service Learning Project
Community Connector - Public/Government

Students at Lovejoy Middle School graduate having learned to respond with love and service to those in need and others in their community. The school partnered with Heard Natural Science Museum Wildlife Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Trinity Trails Preservation Association and Blackland Prairie Raptor Center to create the Lake Lavon Service Learning Project. Approximately 725 students and 100 volunteers participate in a host of community service events, targeted at increasing public awareness and environmental stewardship at Lake Lavon.

Students study geography and biology topics related to Lake Lavon while they focus on cleaning the lake environment. Following their time at the lake, the students publish and distribute the school newspaper to the community; the publication focuses on their experience and what they learned about how the conditions of the lake affect their community.

The Mosaic Center
Community Motivator - Private Sector/Business

The Mosaic Center is a mosaic of ethnic, educational, gender, social, financial and denominational groups who come together to serve their neighbors in Lufkin. This ministry was launched to serve women in need of a second chance. An army of 260 volunteers provide skills that are required to help women break the cycle of poverty and achieve self-sufficiency. Forty eight women have graduated from the program and 88% of those have jobs and are tax payers.

The Mosaic Center has also partnered with various community groups to create the Family Strengthening Conference. Due to the partnership with the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council, Lufkin Junior League and several area school districts, over 1,000 eighth-graders hear nationally recognized speakers on drug prevention. Additionally, the conference included a training targeted towards parents, teachers and professionals who teach clients at the center how to recognize the signs of drug use.

Fourth Partner
Community Capacity Builder - Private Sector/Business

Fourth Partner's focus areas are: building the capacity of nonprofits in the Tyler area, addressing education at the secondary level and college bound preparation, and building the capacity of the philanthropic community. One of the programs that helps recipients give back to the community is the Grantee Leadership Group. A select group of organizations that have benefitted from capacity building services offer both group and individual job coaching to the Executive Directors of various other organizations. This group of directors meets every two months to address issues and provide coaching for solutions. Fourth Partner also aids with capacity building by focusing on funding staff positions, strategic planning and community wealth ventures. Many organizations that have received funding from Fourth Partnership are entering their second five-year strategic plan.

Naval Station Ingleside
Community Motivator - Public/Government

This unique and dedicated naval station in Corpus Christi is home to Navy men and women as well as civilians who work side-by-side to proactively motivate and support others in the surrounding communities. The projects they support include an annual blood drive, an adopt a highway project, Special Olympics, American Cancer Relay for Life, visiting children's hospitals, coaching area youth sports teams, free income tax preparation and a Drug Education For Youth program as well as others. Sailors, civilians and family members of Naval Station Ingleside experience an enriched sense of purpose, develop character and exhibit the "right stuff" to fellow participants and motivate others to share their time and talent with members of the community.

Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries of Greater Houston (ACAM)
Community Capacity Builder - Community

From its inception, ACAM has developed the capabilities of local social purpose ministries and other community-based groups in the areas of leadership development, organizational infrastructure, enhanced revenue-generation and grass roots engagement. This network of ministries is supported by more than 200 faith congregations and 8,000 volunteers who serve more than 300,000 clients annually.

Entrepreneurial enterprises, such as the thrift stores operated by the ministries, greatly increased efficiencies and generated significantly higher revenue which supported expanded client services. In addition, charter member ministries now act as coaches and mentors to new participants, sharing best practices and encouragement as newcomers take the first steps to assess their core competencies and craft a plan to enhance their organizational capacity to deliver needed services.

Kelley Pledger
Community Motivator - Individual

Ms. Pledger's compassion for people has led her to capacity building involvement with more than 30 charitable nonprofit and civic organizations with service areas in four neighboring counties. One example of her efforts includes her work with the Community Storehouse. Her efforts on behalf of the organization have led to increased service capacity, the acquisition of an additional facility to house expanding programs, increased recruitment of volunteers, creation of volunteer recognition programs, additional exposure in the community as well as additional resources to offer motivational training for staff and volunteers.

Her reputation throughout Northeast Tarrant County has led her to be considered a valuable resource to the region's organizations while continually recruiting and motivating volunteer committees and spreading her enthusiasm generously.

Bates Custom & Collision
Community Connector - Private Sector/Business

In a multifaceted project, Bates Custom & Collision involves employees and area businesses to change the lives of deserving families. The annual Responsible Parenting Award and Benevolence Car celebrated its 9th year in 2007. Since 1999, the cooperative effort has resulted in two refurbished cars each year being given to a "parent who is actively involved in their child's education, working hard to improve their own skills and to become independent." Harris County Department of Education's Head Start Centers joined this effort in 2003.

About 40 employees participate yearly in the labor of love buffing, sanding, cleaning, and painting the vehicle after work hours. The parents are selected for their track record of involvement with Head Start. Mothers involved serve on Head Start community advisory boards, volunteer their time in Head Start centers and exhibit growth as parents. Bates Custom & Collision's goal is to use these cars as a bridge for the mothers and families to get further down the road of independence.

Sure B.E.T. Team, Victoria Chamber Foundation and Victoria Business and Education
Community Connector - Community

Sure B.E.T. began with the goal of increasing the educational attainment level of the community and decrease the drop-out rate. Area business leaders recognized the current structure was not producing enough properly trained and educated graduates for area workforce needs and they collaborated with educational institutions to turn this problem around.

The program is comprised of several components designed to address every aspect of a student's success in the workforce. These components also address the need for adult and business involvement with the education community. Thousands of area youth are touched by the programs which include a mentoring/tutoring program, job shadowing, occupation investigation, employment skills training, employee presentations, career/job fairs and a youth leadership conference. The Sure B.E.T. Team has successfully increased communications between education and business communities, addressed learning needs and created favorable conditions for business to support an enhance the educational system.

McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin - Community Tax Center, Tax Practicum
Community Capacity Builder - Public/Government

Through a practicum course offered in the Accounting department at the UT McCombs School of Business, more than 400 students have prepared income tax forms for thousands of working poor families through Foundation Communities' Community Tax Centers programs. Federal Taxation of Low Income Filers Socioeconomic Forces, allows for a unique partnership, creating access to a pool of informed and trained volunteers. The work of these 400 student volunteers has expanded the programs capacity by over 20,000 hours of free tax preparation to low to moderate income families. Students have filled a gap with their flexibility and commitment and provided a valuable service to families who would otherwise be unable to afford qualified tax advice.

Stacey Campbell
Community Connector - Individual

Ms. Campbell's passion to build community relationships through volunteer involvement drove her to create Greater Lewisville Cares (GLC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information and resources to those who are looking to volunteer in the Lewisville area. GLC began holding new volunteer orientations to draw in community members and through press releases, word-of-mouth and the internet, recruited approximately 600 volunteers, serving 66 partner agencies.

Ms. Campbell is known for recognizing talent in others and strives to bring it out. She is passionate about connecting people to projects that they will feel passionate about and, in the process, create a caring community. Through her passion and commitment she has created a vehicle to meet multiple community needs through one centralized effort.

Nicole Castro
First Lady's Rising Star

Nicole does not let schoolwork stop her from volunteering an average of 8 hours a week at the Keller Animal Shelter and her volunteer work does not keep her from being a member of the National Honor Society either. The active teenager is a leader in other community organizations as well. Nicole's dedication and persistence helped her lead the way for developing the Lending Library for low-income families of the Keller Community Storehouse. She solicited hosts of garage sales for books and a local business for a computer and software and then engaged her school clubs in a book drive.

Not content to settle for filling the shelves and resources of the library, she worked to set the foundation for a tutoring and homework help-center to accompany the library. Seeing the children's enthusiastic response to the books motivated Nicole to collect prizes to stock a reading prize program to encourage their continued excitement. Her teachers and community leaders agree that Nicole is a leader among her peers and has already had a huge impact on her community.

Dr. John Richardson
Governor's Lonestar Achievement

Dr. John Richardson is described by his colleagues as a "kind, intelligent and generous man who makes you believe angels are on earth." A successful retired pediatrician in Fort Worth, Dr. Richardson has received a long list of prestigious awards for his volunteer leadership and professional accomplishments over the years. Not willing to rest on decades of past service and accolades, he continues his volunteer efforts with many nonprofits including The WARM Place, which he helped found almost 20 years ago. The WARM Place has become a national model for child and family grief support programs and serves more than 1,800 children and their families annually.

His volunteer leadership spanned a wide array of causes encompassing issues such as adolescent pregnancy, children's medical causes, education, museums and the arts. He tackled a controversial issue of abandoned babies when he became the driving force behind the Baby Moses Law. This law allows parents of unwanted children to lawfully leave them in safe locations police stations, hospitals, and fire stations. First adopted as Texas law, The Baby Moses Law has now been adopted in 47 other states. Friends and colleagues agree, "he has accomplished so much for so many people, particularly children, in such a quiet and unobtrusive way without the spotlight on himself."