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Pat Dozier
Pat, now a retiree, became a Pioneer in 1987 and served as
Northern VA council president in 2004 and 2005. He is
currently serving as the Northern Council president and as a
member of the chapter's executive committee. He has been the
council's fundraiser chairperson since 1998.
Since 1989, Pat has worked with the visually impaired as their Beep Ball coach, receiving the "Frank Hickerson" Special Achievement Award in 1999 for his support and dedication. Pat has been a volunteer at the Virginia Sports Jamboree Games for the past three years and the lead Santa Claus for Northern VA's Annual Santa Bell event since 1987. He is very active in local elementary schools, presenting students with their own dictionaries, participating in chapter reading events and supporting the Math project at the Arlington County Hoffman Boston Elementary School, the chapter's partnership school. Pat has volunteered for the Annual Visually Impaired Easter Egg Hunt since 1994 and has been a Bingo caller twice a year for the past 12 years at Sleepy Hollow Nursing Home. Pat promoted Pioneer events to past co-workers while still an active employee. He continues to conduct membership drives and get friends and Pioneers involved with community projects and events. He received the "Pioneer of the Year" award in 1999 and the Pioneer Excellence Award twice. |
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Chris Casino
Chris, still actively employed by Verizon, has been a
Pioneer since 1991, keeping Pioneering alive in the very
rural Berkshire area as the club president. She has
organized the annual Children's Christmas party for disabled
children for the past 13 years. Her leadership efforts have
helped increase employee volunteerism in the local school
system by enlisting employees and members to be involved in
projects such as distributing dictionaries, computers, books
and school supplies. She has helped brand the Verizon
Pioneers in the Berkshire County school systems.
At Camp Nawaka, Chris organized the volunteer effort, acquired the necessary supplies to paint the dining hall and assisted with multiple tasks during the weekend group VP Project in 2007. Chris consistently volunteers in the Pittsfield School system in the name of Pioneering, reading to children, installing computer systems, purchasing and delivering Scholastic books, painting playground maps and assisting with the school stores. Through Chris' coordination, her club distributed more than 100 backpacks to the local police department, battered women's shelter, schools, camps and homeless shelters. During Pioneer week, Chris heads the membership drive to sign up every new employee. She has registered 59 over five years. Chris actively tries to engage fellow employees in taking leadership roles and influencing them to be more responsible in the planning and follow-through on projects. She encourages co-workers and fellow Pioneers to get involved in easy projects, like delivering Scholastic books to local schools so they can see that volunteering isn't hard, but rewarding. Chris organized 10 volunteers to work at the concession stand of a local Triple A ballpark for 10% of the profits, attended the Boston Gift Show to develop new ideas for fundraising merchandise, which helped her club see a 20% increase in funds. She was named "Pioneer of the Year" in 2005 and received the chapter "Spirit of Service" award in 2007. |
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Gabriel L. Olah
Gabe, as he is known to us, is currently an active Verizon
employee. He joined the Pioneers in 1994 and soon after
became involved as chairman of the Education and Hobby
Committee, followed by map coordinator, council vice
president and president, then chapter vice president and
president. In 2004 ,Gabe took on the position of Talking
Book coordinator for New York state and, in 2006, he became
the 911 Simulator co-coordinator for the chapter.
Gabe has spent countless hours painting playground maps at local schools, building picnic benches, installing lights and windows, and painting buildings and installing Braille signs throughout the Vacation Camp for the Blind in Pomona, NY. He volunteers at the Special Winter Olympics in Ellenville and Albany and previously at the New York State Police Department Special Olympics. Gabe assisted in chapter fundraisers that brought in $12,000. He sells Pioneer shirts, jackets and trucks at flea markets. Belonging to the Orange County Antique Club, he held various offices, developed the club's year book, and was editor of the monthly newsletter for 10 years. He received the "Charles Distel Award," the highest award given by the Orange County Antique Club. In 2000 as council vice president, Gabe resurrected a faltering council, increased membership and added a webmaster. The Empire Mountain Valley Chapter is an active productive chapter because of the dedication Gabe gives so freely to Pioneering. You can always count on him to be there when something needs to be done. |
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Gloria Moran
Gloria, an active Verizon employee, held several positions
with the Southern Tier Council, including president. She
served as chapter president from 2003 - 2006 and was
involved with training the council/club presidents and vice
presidents prior to the training offered by the Group.
Volunteering with the Bath, VA, Council, Gloria delivers dictionaries, welcome backpacks and other items to local shelters. She even traveled 18 hours one way to deliver backpacks stuffed with school supplies to a needy school in Tennessee. Gloria assists once a month at a local church feeding 80-100 homeless, handicapped, sick, poor and needy clients. Gloria is always recruiting new members and promoting new ideas to keep the younger members involved. She hosts a membership drive breakfast for outside techs. Gloria organized and promoted a council and chapter cookbook, "Cooking with Excelsior." Gloria submitted a write-up and received the Pioneer Telecom Challenge Award for orchestrating the purchase and installation of computers, painting of classrooms, and set up of a computer lab for the Wyoming Conference Children's Home. She received an award from the New York State Higher Education Council for mentoring teenage parents at a company work location. She toured one summer with the New York State Educators going to different colleges presenting information on the mentoring program. Gloria is always willing and able to help others when needed throughout the chapter area and beyond. |
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Hilda Martino
Joining the Pioneers in 1965, Hilda, now a retiree, has held
several offices on the Evergreen Council and Club including
council president and life member club vice president. She
currently serves as Evergreen life member president and
chapter member-at-large, positions she has held for the past
six years.
As "Sparky the Clown" and a member of Tent #1, she entertains the young and not so young at many local health centers. Hilda organizes volunteers to plant flowers and shrubs at many community locations for the enjoyment of others. She continues to coordinate annual visits of the Bloodmobile to company buildings. While employed for Verizon, Hilda served as membership chairperson on the Evergreen Council and continues to participate in membership drives as the life member club president. Hilda held monthly fundraisers for the March of Dimes and received an award from the organization for her commitment. She is a board member of the Westmoreland County March of Dimes. Hilda also serves as secretary/treasurer of her partner John's World War II Veterans Association which landed on Normandy Beach during the first hour. |
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Wordene Day
Known as Dene to friends and Pioneers, she is an active
employee with Frontier Communications. Since joining the
Pioneers in 1985, she has served as chapter 2nd vice
president, vice president and life member liaison for the
Frontier Pioneer Active Board. Dene is also the Project
Connect chairperson and leads the volunteer effort for the
Frontier Pioneers at the Special Olympics held in Rochester,
NY.
Dene is very active in the school supply drives and the military drives. She helped form a partnership with the Rochester Chorus/Sweet Adelines Women's Chorus to collect items for the military. Dene has been clowning for 25 years as "Shammie the Clown" for charities. She visits Golisano Children's Hospital each year to help distribute Christmas gifts to the patients who are battling cancer. For 15 years, she has volunteered for Junior Achievement. Dene organizes a team of Frontier Pioneers who attend the "I Remember Mama" brunch to celebrate Mother's Day with the elderly living in nursing homes. Dene mentors the Frontier Life Member Board on how to handle projects and finances and is always recruiting new volunteers to help out with Pioneer activities. She serves on the Frontier Pioneers fundraising committee and helps organize the annual calendar drive. Dene has received the Frontier "Pioneer of the Year" award, the Frontier Ambassador Certificate of Excellence award and the Frontier Pioneer Shining Star Award. Dene, being a dancer for many years, now volunteers her time to Performance Plus Dance Productions, a local dance company in Rochester. She sings with the Rochester Chorus/Sweet Adelines as well as in a quartet. She also manages their finances. She is involved with her church where she is chairperson of its Parish Life Committee and a member of the Cantor and Choir. |
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Maureen O'Day
Maureen, a active FairPoint Communications employee, joined
the Pioneers in 1987. She has served as member at large,
vice president and president on the New Hampshire Council.
She has served as a member at large on the chapter level.
Maureen has been the project chairperson of the Northwood
State Park and Easy Access VT State Parks projects. She
volunteers at the Special Olympics in Vermont and the New
Hampshire summer and winter games and paints Pioneer
playground maps at local schools. She assists at the
Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, Respite House, Days of Caring,
Humane Society and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps.
As council president, Maureen supported membership drives and provided Pioneer training for new council members. Maureen assists with raffles and store sales. She sold sweatshirts for the chapter's Easy Access project at Northwood State Park. Maureen chaired the Northwood project to build a handicap accessible trail network on a cooperative property for the State of New Hampshire Parks. She coordinated efforts with the state, town and Pioneers. Through her efforts, the Inner Loop Trail, approximately one mile long, was completed with bridges, walls, excavators, chain saw work and trail building. Maureen has led the Easy Access project for the past 14 years. She built relationships with the state, park rangers and project leaders for ease of scheduling and work preparation. She has received the Easy Access Award from the State of Vermont for Volunteerism and was recognized by the Vermont Youth Conservations Corps. |
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Lidia Folk
Lidia has been involved in Pioneering since very early in
her career at Verizon. She started in the early 80s as a
Future Pioneer helping on local projects such as the Future
Pioneer Golf Tournament and Easter Egg Hunt for blind and
visually impaired children. Lidia also appeared as Woodsy
Owl at school functions for many years. Lidia was president,
member at large and treasurer on the council and club level.
She also served as chapter member at large.
Although Lidia can appear shy and quiet at times, she is an innate leader for many local and chapter projects. She has volunteered for several years as project leader at the Food Bank, was the local book coordinator for the Pioneer "I Like Me" and "All About Me" books distributed at schools, and is always looking for new members. Lidia has helped with and organized many council and club fundraisers, including putting together the club cookbook. She also was in charge of purchasing items for the office snack box and keeping track of the money for the council. Lidia is involved with volunteering at her church, organizing blood drives and coordinating church dinners. Lidia's personal favorite project is the LH Kinnard Sports Jamboree. She has been involved as a volunteer for the entire 26 years of the chapter signature project. While starting as a hostess for the contestants, she soon stepped up to volunteer as contestant chairperson on the Sports Jamboree Committee. Each year she researches the availability of new products that might help make the games easier for the kids. She ensures the kids are divided into proper groups to guarantee that every contestant wins a star in his or her event. Her enthusiasm for this project has made her a friend of the contestants and their families. She is often in touch with the kids year round. |
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Alfred Collins
Al, a Pioneer since 1996, is best known for his photography
work. Have camera will travel. He never goes out without at
least one camera in his possession. For more years than we
can name, he has been the Liberty Bell Chapter's official
photographer. He attends all chapter events, helps out
wherever he's needed, and captures the activities with his
camera for historical purposes. He also is the official
photographer for the Northeast Council and the former
Northeast Life Member Club. He wrote and distributed
instructions on how to take good pictures for the council
and chapter yearly albums.
Al also runs the Northeast Council Pioneer Playground Map project. He's gotten down on his hands and knees to paint many maps. In addtion, he has written an information/instruction booklet on using the electronic map, which is given to a school when a map is presented. He has documented a "how to" paper on making E Maps. Al has been council and club president and a chapter member at large. He was editor of the "Glad House" and Liberty Bell's "Chatter." He attended all 15 of the Northeast Council's dictionary presentations at the schools during 2008 and has made 12 visits to Montgomery County's Domestic Abuse House. When Al isn't doing Pioneer work, he is doing church work. He is currently on the Board of Trustees at his church. He is the superintendent of the Sunday school and fondly referred to at Pop-Pop Al by the day care children. Besides being Mr. Fix It for the church, he is also the head of the ushers and the sermon recorder. |
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Nouvelle Helmick
Nouvelle joined the Pioneers in 1978. She served as Colonial
Council's vice president and president from 1991-1993. As
the chapter's playground map chairperson from 1994-2003, she
coordinated and helped paint some of the 42 maps, then went
on to chapter vice president and president. She currently
serves as chapter secretary/treasurer. As chapter president,
she introduced and coordinated the dictionary project in her
chapter.
Nouvelle has participated in Habitat for Humanity , environmental clean-up projects, Christmas in April projects, mentored elementary school children for five years and helped organized Thanksgiving and Christmas food drives annually for more than 200 families. Nouvelle held membership drives in various company building lobbies signing up new members. She designed a Pioneer brochure for the Maryland Chapter to spread the word of Pioneering throughout Maryland. She continues to lobby for a companywide initiative to have Pioneers introduced on "First Day" orientation. Nouvelle has organized bake and book sales, dances, raffles, ticket sales, and helped with all fundraising projects to raise funds for the chapter. She develops and conducts the annual chapter training for incoming officers and chairpersons. For the past few years, she has been a member of the VFFT Group Training Team. She received the Chapter Presidents Award in 2006. In her 30 years of Pioneering, she has received numerous certificates of appreciation. |
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Janice E Knodel
Janice has been a dedicated Pioneer since the early 1970s.
She was fundraiser for many years, managing the Pioneer
Store, and a member at large for more than five years. As
group representative, Janice was responsible for getting
information to all offices in the council's area. Janice
also served as life member affairs chair and life member
representative.
Janice, known to many as "Noodles the Clown," helped establish the Clown Troop and was its director for several years. For many years, "Noodles" participated in Pioneering and community events for mentally and physically challenged youth. This included Tournament of Champions at McGuire Air Force Base and Day on the Bay boat rides, games, food, and entertainment in Brigantine and several shore cities. She also supported Camden County's Park Peach Festival, helped with construction of the world's largest banana split for Guinness Records Book, painted faces at Collingswood's May Fair, participated in Making Strides Against Cancer Walk, helped with St. Bartholomew School's Christmas stockings project for homeless children in Cherry Hill, helped at physically and mentally challenged youth Dance at St. John's of God, assisted with a Luau Benefit to raise money for a much-needed elevator for a Haddonfield family, and was instrumental in raising money for an assist dog for a girl with muscular dystrophy. Janice used her contacts with the Lutheran Brotherhood to have the funds from all of our life member club's matched. Janice has been active with the Sports Jamboree for physically challenged youth since it started in 1991, sometimes as a clown but always as a clapper and support person. She participates in environmental beach clean-ups in Brigantine and County Parks and has served ice cream at the Scoopers kiosk at McGuire and Millville Airports for several years. She collects cancelled postage stamps and forwards them to the Eastern Star of NJ. They prepare the stamps for sale to stamp dealers. The money raised is given to Morristown School for the Blind to support the upbringing of guide dogs for the blind. Janice helped with the design and publishing of the Council's "Heart-Line" Newsletter. |
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Cathy Brantley
A Pioneer since 1985, Cathy has served as council president,
chapter Hug-A-Bear chair, and Community Service chair. She
has sewn more than 3,000 Christmas stockings and 1,000 heart
pillows for New Community Extended Care Facility and more
than 5,000 Hug-A-Bears for police and fire departments.
Cathy initiated the Net Day project at North Arlington School to make the school Internet accessible, participated in after-school tutoring and painted Pioneer playground maps. She has served on various committees and participates in projects for ramps, water runs and beach cleanups. She cooks at the soup kitchen, delivers clothing to shelters and delivers "Be My Baby" baskets to hospitals. Every year, Cathy ensures that the seniors at New Community Senior Center receive stockings. She still participates in bake sales and book fairs when needed. Cathy organized and participated in several membership drives, as well as implementing incentives for recruitment during her year as council president. From 1996 - 2000, Cathy helped with the vendor program at the 900 Clinton Ave. building which helped fund council projects. Cathy received the Council "Pioneer of the Year" and the Essex "Life Member Pioneer of the Year" awards. She has received letters of recognition and a commendation from Casa for her work to help make a child feel safe with Hug-A-Bears. |
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Stella Risi
Stella, joining the Pioneers in 1988, is the fundraising
co-chair and a member of the Executive Board of the Gateway
Life Member Club. She coordinates and collects books for the
Season's Readings project and coordinates the Thanksgiving
food drive. Stella shops for and visits with homebound
elderly women through an outreach program. She is a member
of the Gateway Hobby Club that makes plastic canvas items
and gives them to nursing home residents.
She volunteers on the contact calling team encouraging retirees to attend meetings and to volunteer for various projects. She works with them on the project through its completion. As fundraising co- chair, she sells raffle tickets at meetings and collects items for white elephant sales. Stella has received awards from the Gateway Life Member Club and the NOVA 5 Chapter for her community service involvement. |
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Helen Mueller
Helen has been a Pioneer since 1976. She has served as
chapter secretary and parliamentarian, newsletter editor and
publisher, chapter assembly chairperson, and chapter partner
chairperson.
Helen participated in the region project at Camp Nawaka by helping prepare the camp for opening day. She also assisted in the preparation and serving of meals to the 100 project volunteers. She assists the education chairperson in distributing dictionaries, driving volunteers to the schools, passing out dictionaries to the students, and helping pass out Smart Bears to the kindergarteners just before the reading of a story to the class. Helen is the statewide AARP telephone coordinator for the Driver Safety Program. She is chairperson for "Take the Kids to Work" Day, which is combined with a membership drive. She works with the active employees registering children, purchasing and serving breakfast snacks and lunch, and assisting in the signup of new members. Helen designed and printed copies of the council's Lynchburg Council brochure. She secured a professional auctioneer who was used at the Chapter Assembly instead of a silent auction. The silent auction normally brings in less than $1000, and the event using an auctioneer brought in more than $3000, and became the most remembered event of the Assembly. Helen was recognized for her volunteerism at Camp Nawaka, received certificates of appreciation from the chapter for serving as chairperson for the Chapter Assembly and from AARP for serving as a Driving Safety Instructor and a statewide telephone coordinator. |
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Merle Steiner
With an instant friendly handshake and a warm smile, Merle
greets one and all. He is characterized as dedicated,
hardworking, amicable, knowledgeable, energetic and modest.
He genuinely cares about people and gives unselfishly of his
time and talent in the true spirit of Pioneering. Merle
became a life member in 1988 serving each year either at the
club, council or chapter level in some capacity, including
chairperson for the Community Service, Environmental,
Nominating and Information and Publicity committees. He also
served as treasurer, vice president and president of the
Sagamore Life Member Club.
Merle assists clients at nursing home bingo games twice a month, and delivers lap robes to nursing homes and food to the Outreach Center. He volunteers for the Special Olympics, "I Like Me" books, "Getting Kids on Track" and "Christmas in July" projects. Merle places and removes Memorial Day flags at Long Island National Cemetery, performs as an entertainer and sings Christmas carols at nursing homes and paints Pioneer playground maps. He volunteers at the Easter Egg Hunt and Apple Festival at Mill Neck Manor and the "Hole in the Woods" Chapter project. He prepares and serves food at Hicksville Inn, participates in the beach cleanup at Welwyn Preserve, and went on a Santa Goodwill Tour. Merle donates blood for the Golden Donor and the Nassau Council Blood drive. He has assisted in the purchase of a Seeing Eye Dog for a blind person, instituted the purchase of "Spinoza Bears" for nursing home Alzheimer patients and gathered therapeutic games and videos for Daleview Nursing Home. He collects cancelled stamps for veterans and aluminum tabs to assist in sending a child with kidney problems to camp. Merle organized horse racing trips and fundraised for the Heart Association. He stuffs envelopes for the Chapter Sweepstakes and is on the mailing committee at St. Luke's. |
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Robert W. Sylvia
Robert has been a Pioneer since 1976 serving as
president/vice president of the Cape Cod Council, and
president/vice president of the Pilgrim Chapter. He has been
the life member representative for two terms and has served
as the Cape Cod life member club president for three
two-year terms.
Robert built a playground area for handicapped children, painted Pioneer playground maps in Wareham and Falmouth, installed life line units for Falmouth Hospital for the last 19 years volunteering over 2,000 hours as a Pioneer. He shopped, packaged and mailed care packages for Armed Forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert worked with the Membership Committee to set up membership drives and "Safety Meetings" with employees to stress the importance of Pioneering work to encourage new members. He participated in "This is Entertainment" stage show which was a major fundraising effort for the Pilgrim Chapter. Robert created the life member strip that is now placed under the Pioneers auto decal. Robert has received the Outstanding Life Member Representative Award, certificates for outstanding service to Pioneering, and numerous certificates/letters of thanks from various organizations for contributions and service projects done in the name of Pioneering. |
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Joyce Wolter
Joyce joined the Pioneers in 1982. She has served as
secretary, treasurer and president of the Norwesco Club. For
17 years, Joyce was the fundraiser for TELEMAC. For 18
years, Joyce was a dance instructor and director of the
Monroe WA Middle Eastern Dance troupe. Joyce mentored the
club executive board on how the treasurer and the club
should handle the clubs funds and attended membership drives
recruiting and explaining Pioneering to new members. Joyce
is the chairperson of monthly vendor day sales for the
Norwesco Club.
Joyce received the Norwesco Club "Pioneer of the Year" award in 2003, and a certificate of appreciation for being treasurer of the Norwesco Club in 2005 and vendor sales and fundraising chair for 2006. Joyce has been a member of the Norwesco Club Board of Directors for more than 10 years and chairperson of club fundraising for 17 years. |
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Geneva Templin
Geneva held various positions on the council level for many
years. She accepted the role of chapter president in 2006.
As an adult literacy tutor prior to her retirement in 1995,
she tutored 10 adult students a week. Volunteering in two
West Virginia counties, she nurtured 10 adults through
passing their high schools equivalency tests. Geneva worked
nine months with an adult, not educated in his native
country of North Korea and not literate in English, on
reading and writing and the history of the United States.
Nothing was more wonderful to her than standing next to this
student while he took the oath to become a U.S. Citizen.
As a Read Aloud Volunteer at the same school for 13 years, Geneva has watched the children move through their early years and then onto secondary school with a foundation of literacy skills that continues to make a difference to them. Volunteering for the local humane society in her home county, Geneva and her partner Steve answer more than 300 calls a month to provide financial assistance to pet owners who do not have the means to neuter or spay their cats or dogs. Over the past three years, Geneva wrote and received five competitive grants totaling $25,000 and a Verizon match of $5,000 in 2006. Six domestic violence programs throughout the state received new computer technology to aid their workers in helping their victims. Wireless Internet service was provided at two locations and a website was created for a YWCA that serves as the main contact and location for domestic violence issues. |
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