As John Maxwell said, "Teamwork is at the heart of all great achievement." Today, we received our official volunteer service awards from the Triangle Nonprofit and Leadership Center in a drive-through ceremony. Back in January of this year, we were nominated by Alan Slavin of W.G. Pearson Elementary, and were notified we received one of the Durham County Awards. Each of the 100 counties in North Carolina puts forward one nominee as a Medallion Nominee. This nomination process is done secretly and the County winners do not know who has been nominated for the Medallion Award. Governor Roy Cooper and his team review the nominations from each county and select 20 statewide Medallion winners from the 100 nominees submitted. Creekside Cares was selected as the winner in Durham County. This is a great honor and testimony to the teamwork and dedication of the entire Creekside Community.
Here is Mr. Slavin's nomination:
"Creekside Cares is a service club within Creekside at Bethpage, a 55+ residential community. Creekside Cares began serving W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham in 2018. Each week, dozens of Creekside volunteers visit the school to help with regular and special events. In 2018 and 2019, Creekside Cares organized a school supply drive through social media and an online signup. When Pearson's food pantry lacked funding, they created a partnership with the Interfaith Food Shuttle to deliver 35 bags of meals. In one school year, they delivered 9,030 meals to at risk students, and in the summer of 2019 hosted a nonperishable food drive, collecting over 1,500 cans of food. Creekside Cares worked with school officials to spearhead a cold-weather clothing drive. With more items received then were immediately needed, they obtained shelving supplies and installed a coat closet. Their volunteers supported our outdoor classroom and the Engineering & Gardening Club by building wheelbarrows, picnic tables and planting beds, and improving our chicken coop. They worked with the district office to install a router at the school to hook the system up to Weather Underground and delivered a lecture to teach students about the weather station and meteorology. For the last two years, they have given holiday gifts to more than 60 children from 29 families and last year volunteers provided a buffet breakfast for 90 members of staff at W.G. Pearson. One volunteer brings a service/therapy dog, Sally, and "Reading to Sally" has become very popular. Over the last year, they logged over 2,000 volunteer hours."
Ordinarily, the awards would have been presented at an award ceremony and luncheon with Governor Roy Cooper. The Covid-19 pandemic put those plans on hold and ultimately cancelled them completely. Once it is safe to do so, Creekside Cares will host our own celebration in honor of this achievement.
We will frame our certificate, and display it in Hemingway Hall in the near future. Way to go Creekside Cares!
Here is Mr. Slavin's nomination:
"Creekside Cares is a service club within Creekside at Bethpage, a 55+ residential community. Creekside Cares began serving W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham in 2018. Each week, dozens of Creekside volunteers visit the school to help with regular and special events. In 2018 and 2019, Creekside Cares organized a school supply drive through social media and an online signup. When Pearson's food pantry lacked funding, they created a partnership with the Interfaith Food Shuttle to deliver 35 bags of meals. In one school year, they delivered 9,030 meals to at risk students, and in the summer of 2019 hosted a nonperishable food drive, collecting over 1,500 cans of food. Creekside Cares worked with school officials to spearhead a cold-weather clothing drive. With more items received then were immediately needed, they obtained shelving supplies and installed a coat closet. Their volunteers supported our outdoor classroom and the Engineering & Gardening Club by building wheelbarrows, picnic tables and planting beds, and improving our chicken coop. They worked with the district office to install a router at the school to hook the system up to Weather Underground and delivered a lecture to teach students about the weather station and meteorology. For the last two years, they have given holiday gifts to more than 60 children from 29 families and last year volunteers provided a buffet breakfast for 90 members of staff at W.G. Pearson. One volunteer brings a service/therapy dog, Sally, and "Reading to Sally" has become very popular. Over the last year, they logged over 2,000 volunteer hours."
Ordinarily, the awards would have been presented at an award ceremony and luncheon with Governor Roy Cooper. The Covid-19 pandemic put those plans on hold and ultimately cancelled them completely. Once it is safe to do so, Creekside Cares will host our own celebration in honor of this achievement.
We will frame our certificate, and display it in Hemingway Hall in the near future. Way to go Creekside Cares!
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