Virginia Service

Chairman's Award: Thomas Cannon, Richmond
This year's Governor's Community Service and Volunteerism Chairman's Award was presented posthumously to Mr. Thomas Cannon of Richmond. During his lifetime he donated an estimated $156,000 to individuals and organizations, mostly in $1000 increments. He joined the U.S. Postal Service in 1972 and worked faithfully until his retirement in 1983, having earned a maximum annual salary of $25,000. Mr. Cannon responded to events he heard or read about, often sending donations through newspaper reporters. He was dubbed the "poor man's philanthropist" and later authored a book by the same title. Mr. Cannon was featured in magazines and appeared on such shows as Oprah, Mick Douglas and ABC's Nightline. Friends and others that knew him well stated that he never desired attention or recognition for his efforts. He often said, "We're suppose to love God and to love like God and we choose every day how we'll do that." Mr. Cannon was diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year and passed away in July. Richmond and Virginia honor him for leaving such a rich legacy to follow.
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Civic Engagement: Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, Richmond
Student volunteers at the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Richmond have been involved as translators, survey designers, data analysts, and policy developers for CrossOver Ministry, which provides healthcare services to the low-income, uninsured population of Central Virginia. The Bonner Center has also helped coordinate the ministry's first ever CrossOver Challenge 5K charity run which helped the ministry open a fourth clinic in Henrico County. The Bonner Center coordinates volunteers, service learning, and research efforts in the Richmond community, aiming to help students, faculty, and community leaders understand the factors contributing to local, national, and global social and civic problems. The Center creates and maintains a directory of over 250 service sites in metro Richmond, all of which is web accessible by the campus and local community.
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Faith-Based Program: John Horejsi, Vienna
John Horejsi founded Social Action Linking Together (SALT) in 1983 in order to bring about systematic change for those persons disenfranchised by poverty. His network now includes over 700 social justice advocates from parishes in Northern Virginia 's Diocese of Arlington. His lobbying efforts have persuaded the Virginia General Assembly to pass a $20 million Virginia Earned-Income Tax Credit (EITC), to increased grant monies to assisted living facilities and adult foster care homes, to maintain the Homeless Intervention Program (HIP), and are currently working on expanding the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program to maximize child support payment to custodial parents. While many individuals assist in the organization's work, Mr. Horejsi continues to be the group's visionary leader and inspiration. His leadership, advocacy, and legislative skills have proven invaluable.
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Family: Sening Family, Mechanicsville
Herb, Page, Philip, and Nathan Sening volunteer with the Volunteer Emergency Families for Children (VEFC) providing emergency shelter and respite care to children who are abused, neglected, at-risk, and/or runaways. The Senings are on-call and make this volunteer opportunity a family effort, making lunches, reading bedtime stories, attending doctors appointments, sharing toys, assisting with homework, and much more. The Senings have opened their home to thirty children, giving more than 264 days or 6,336 hours of volunteer service as a host family for VEFC. Herb, Page, Philip and Nathan Sening demonstrate that one family can make a difference.
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Government: William Church, Richmond
William Church volunteers with the evening recreation program at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) and has done almost daily for five years. A veteran of the Korean War, the patients at McGuire VAMC find in him a peer. He is meticulous in preparing for the evening's program and cleaning up afterwards and has been dubbed “the volunteer's volunteer.” Mr. Church's focus is primarily on assisting the veterans for the hospital's recreation programs and has logged nearly 4,000 volunteer hours for the hospital since February 2000. He remains upbeat with always a joke to share and is revered by veterans, staff, volunteers alike, and respected as an important member of the team.
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Homeland Security Service: Troy Wheeler, Fredericksburg
Troy Wheeler promotes crime prevention and homeland security as a Target Associate Investigator, a Reserve Officer with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, and a volunteer with the Virginia State Police. Mr. Wheeler works with the police, giving aid with fraud investigations and has partnered Target with the Prince William County Police Department's Certified Crime Prevention Business Program. He promotes crime prevention as a volunteer with the Help Eliminate Auto Theft (HEAT) program and serves on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Crime Prevention Association. Mr. Wheeler has been most effective forming private-public partnerships that help to connect resources. Mr. Wheeler has also participated in the National Night Out celebrations in Prince William, Stafford , and Henrico counties.
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Homeland Security Service: Angel Flight Virginia, Virginia Beach
Angel Flight Virginia is a network of volunteer pilots and planes which operates as part of the Homeland Security Emergency Air Transportation System (HSEATS). Angel Flight partners with the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, National Voluntary Organizations Active, and the Amateur Radio Relay League, to transport emergency personnel and blood in an emergency, to deliver transplant patients to hospitals for surgery, and to fly military families to medical facilities. These volunteer pilots are available 24/7 and, in 2004, flew over 600 missions, giving 4,832 hours of service. In the event of a nationwide emergency, Angel Flight can mobilize over 6,000 volunteer pilots and planes.
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Large Business: Cox Communications, Hampton Roads
Cox Communications has donated millions of dollars and in-kind donations to the Hampton Road community. Cox offers production support to education and non-profit organizations and cablecast time on COX 11. Cox employees also give their time through community outreach efforts. The Cox communications/Hampton Roads vision is to be the best company to work for and do business with, improving the quality of life in the communities we serve. Cox offers local original programming for fifteen unique communities - each equally important and each worthy of recognition. COX 11 provides that recognition and more by bringing the very best in community programming.
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Large Business: Southern Management, Vienna
Southern Management is involved with the Emergency Housing Program of the United Service Organizations (USO) and, as such, provides furnished apartments free to military personnel and their families for 60 days. Southern Management also donates care packages to Operation USA Care Package. Employees of Southern Management have given 1,000+ hours assembling over 25,000 care packages, 10,000 toiletry kits, and have given over $5,000 to the program. Additionally, they offer a service that allows on duty military personnel to house their families during the holidays for free. These apartments are provided to military families for up to sixty days at no cost. They are also committed to public welfare, education, and health initiatives, making the Washington DC area a better place to live for thousands.
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National Service Individual: Robert Gribben, Christiansburg
Robert Gribben serves in the Virginia Insurance Counseling Assistance Program (VICAP) with the New River Area Agency on Aging. As such, he has become an expert on Medicare, Medigap, and insurance fraud. He is dedicated to providing insurance assistance to persons with disabilities and helps his clients apply for benefits, visiting them at home when they are unable to come to him. He gives presentations to senior groups, AARP, and at congregate meal programs. While recovering from surgery recently, he remained in contact with his clients by telephone.
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National Service Program: The Campagna Center, Alexandria
The Campagna Center hosts a Retired & Senior Volunteers Program (RSVP), where volunteers age 55 years and older serve with the America Reads Tutoring Project and the Northern Virginia Senior Environment Corps. RSVP volunteers also host an annual art show, Young at Art, participate in the Viola Lawson Walk to Fight Breast Cancer, and host an environmental clean up on Martin Luther King Day in January. RSVP volunteers serve in a number of areas too numerous to mention, however there are some that have received recognition on their own merit such as The Grandfather's Group Mentoring Project, the America Reads Tutoring Project, and the Northern Virginia Senior Environment Corps. During a 32-year time span, The Campagna Center has served over one million clients mobilizing 1,659 RSVP volunteers, who have provided in excess of 1 million hours of service. Using today's figures this service would be valued at $19 million.
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National Service Program: A Day in the Life, Charlottesville
A Day in the Life partners University of Virginia students with local public school children. Mentees spend "a day in the life" receiving tutoring and mentoring from UVA students. In its three-year history, this program has evolved from being exclusively a mentoring program to a mentoring/tutoring program, going from 34 mentors to 139 tutors and 37 mentors this year, providing meaningful educational and cultural support services to Charlottesville children, and helping to break down stereotypes that have caused divisions between the university and community.
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National Service Program: League of Older Americans Area Agency on Aging, Roanoke
The League of Older Americans (LOA) has served as a sponsor for three national Senior Corps programs. It has hosted the Foster Grandparent Program for thirty-two years, the Senior Companion Program for twelve years, and until two years ago, it also hosted a Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) for thirty years. LOA's multiple sponsorship has afforded it the opportunity to provide a myriad of services to those in need in a variety of venues. The Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) has provided services to children and youth with special needs to enhance their mental, educational and emotional well-being. The Senior Companion Program (SC) has provided services to frail elderly to assist them in maintaining their independent living status and also to provide respite services for caregivers. The Retired & Senior Volunteer Program provides services throughout the community, meeting needs in a number of areas such as literacy, health and nutrition, and homeland security. During this combined 74-year time span, these programs have served over one million clients (children, seniors and the community at-large) and mobilized over 3,000 volunteers.
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National Service Program: Clinch Valley Community Action Inc., North Tazewell
The Senior Companion Program (SCP) partners low-income senior volunteers with seniors in need of non-medical personal care, home management assistance, shopping, escorting, information and referral services, and social and recreational services. The SCP maintains in senior clients a sense of self-worth, nurtures their physical health, and facilitates the retention of their mental alertness while enriching their social contacts. Since it began in 1988, SCP has served over 1,225 seniors, providing 782,000 hours of service. One of the main benefits this program provides to its senior clients is to allow many of them to maintain their independent living status, which they value a great deal.
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National Service Program: Crater District Area Agency on Aging, Petersburg
The original sponsor was the Petersburg and Colonial Heights Jaycees. In 1991, Crater District Area Agency on Aging became the sponsor and continues as the sponsor today.Services of mentoring and tutoring are provided at a variety of sites, which include elementary schools, Head Start programs, day care centers, and homeless shelters. During this 33-year time span this program has served over 13,200 children using 2,252 low-income Foster Grand Parent volunteers who provided over 2.85 million hours of service to meet the educational, mental, and emotional needs of each child. All the organizations that have Foster Grand Parent volunteers at their sites speak highly of them and state that they wish that they could have more.
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Nonprofit Group: Gloucester Citizen Assistance Committee, Gloucester
Within thirty days following Hurricane Isabel, the Gloucester Citizen Assistance Committee was up and running, coordinating a county-wide fundraising and volunteer service initiative. This committee consists of representatives from government, schools, local assistance groups, community organizations, and churches. They raised over $200,000 to help residence rebuild their homes and organized volunteers to assist with clean-up, repair, rebuilding, and clothes and food drives. One-third of the families affected were low- to middle-income families, whose needs most likely would not have been met were it not for the generous support of the Gloucester Citizen Assistance Committee.
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Senior Volunteer: Al Scaia, Lynchburg
Mr. Scaia has served within many areas of Centra Health Virginia Baptist Hospital and in the Lynchburg area to resolve problems with patients who have physical challenges. He has volunteered at the Virginia Baptist Hospital for the past sixteen years and has amassed over 2, 630 hours of volunteer service. Al Scaia uses his skills as an electrical engineer to design, build, and install innovative equipment for the patients of Centra Health Virginia Baptist Hospital . Using used Lear jet parts, he is building a biofeedback balancing system to help patients walk. He often visits patients' homes to produce specialized and custom assistive devices. He is passionate about helping patients overcome their physical limitations. In so doing, Mr. Scaia has made a tremendous difference in the quality of thousands of lives.
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Small Business: Pomoco Auto Group, Hampton Roads
Pomoco Auto Group's Founder and Chairman, Dois Rosser, believes in serving the community as best you can. Pomoco donates time and money to over 100 organizations including Queen Street Beacon at the Crossroads, Hand and Hand, Inc., and the Foster Grandparent Program. Officers of the Board of Directors of Pomoco serve in over sixty various organizations and sit on agency boards in the area such as Achievable Dream, Parkview Little League, Virginia Living Museum, National Youth Sports, Virginia War Museum, Lions Club, Kiwanis Club, Hampton Parks and Recreation, Boy Scouts, Food Bank of Hampton Roads, Safe Haven, and Boys and Girls Club of the Virginia Peninsula.
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Small Business: Hampton Chevrolet Mazda, Hampton
Mr. Wood and Mr. Hobbs are unselfish supporters of the City of Hampton 's police force and the community as a whole. In case of emergency, Hampton Chevrolet Mazda is ready. When Hurricane Isabel struck, Hampton Chevrolet Mazda provided a workplace for emergency personnel, providing land line phones and hot meals. During hot summer months, they welcome members of the police force into their air conditioned showroom and offer cool drinks. They provided team uniforms for the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run. They also sponsor the USO Concert Services in partnership with the Hampton business community. Mr. Wood and Mr. Hobbs have made their business an invaluable asset and part of the community.
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Volunteer: John Feehan, Front Royal
John Feehan mobilizes, coordinates, and motivates volunteers to help with the needs of the disabled community. He has been the chairman of the Warren County Special Education Advisory Committee for ten years. He is a surrogate parent in the Individualized Education Program for students with disabilities and an emergency foster care parent for Volunteer Emergency Families for Children. He has worked closely with the Warren County Parks and Recreation Department to increase the number of participants and sports offered in the Special Olympics. Despite continuing health problems, he devotes many hours to his community, providing services to his fellow at-risk and neighbors with disabilities.
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Volunteer Administrator: Judie Connelly, Lynchburg
Judie Connelly is the Director of Volunteer Services at Virginia Baptist Hospital , where she oversees 380 volunteers. Her supervision includes recruiting, screening, training, scheduling, monitoring and recognizing volunteers while maintaining a professional and affirming atmosphere that benefits the hospital. Judie has been involved with volunteer administration for over twenty-six years, spending twenty of those years with the hospital. Her dynamic leadership propelled her to receive the city of Lynchburg 's Volunteer Administrator of the Year Award and serve as past president of the Virginia Society for Directors of Healthcare Volunteer Services.
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Youth Volunteer: Jodi Corbett, Petersburg
Jodi Corbett, a student at Vernon John Middle School in Petersburg, placed receptacles at day care centers, churches, department stores, with scout troops, and at all of Petersburg Public Schools to collect letters and care packages for soldiers serving in Iraq. She calls this program “Reach Out.” To date, more than 2,500 letters have been sent to Camp Bucca , Iraq and Jodi continues to receive requests from the Petersburg community for more receptacles. In addition to Reach Out, Ms. Corbett also assists with the Children's Miracle Network, Kids Helping Kids, and the Anthem Lemon Aid (to benefit children with cancer), which will be donated to Richmond's Children's Hospital and the MCV's Children's Medical Center. Ms. Corbett is an example to all her school peers and the community for her maturity and patriotism.
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