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Interstate Worldwide Relocation and Southland
Concrete
Interstate Worldwide Relocation and Southland Concrete were crucial
volunteer partners of
Art in the Pages, the first large-scale public art sculpture
project in Fairfax County. Interstate Worldwide Relocation moved
all of the large statues several times including to the artist
workspaces, to the paint-in location in the city of Fairfax and finally
to the display locations. The estimated value of their contribution
is over $10,000.
Southland Concrete designed, poured, and delivered specialized concrete bases to the paint in location and then coordinated with Interstate to deliver bases in tandem with the sculptures in all weather. The estimated value of their contribution is in excess of $20,000.
The project developed into a larger task than initially assumed due to timing, statue weathering and other unexpected factors. However these organizations provided many days of heavy equipment and manpower (including some 12-hour days!) to make the Art in the Pages project a success.
Length of Service Volunteers who have volunteered over 1,000 hours. Each volunteer received a certificate and a Jefferson Cup.
City of Fairfax
Pat Barber
Pat has been a volunteer for the Information Department for 10 years and
has been involved in cataloging the music collection, answering reference
questions at the information desk, and tutoring customers in how to use
both the Internet and Microsoft office programs. Pat brings to the
library community a distinguished library background. She has prior
experience at both Yale and Brown Universities, and Pat is currently the
Special Collections Coordinator at the Library of Congress.
Patricia
Burns
Pat checks in delivery and book drop on Wednesday mornings as well as
searching and processing the items on the clean hold shelf report. She
also helps process the holds for the day which greatly helps staff
complete the task in a timely manners. Pat is very efficient and a hard
worker; never taking a break until the job is done. She often comes in an
extra day when the library is short staffed which helps to keep the work
room tasks moving smoothly.
Kathe Gunther
Kathe has
amassed 1,000 volunteer hours in less than two years working both at home
and in the Virginia Room. She came on board to take care of most of the
requests for articles people find in the Library’s online Historical
Newspaper Index. She pulls the articles, copies and mails them and bills
the customers. The bulk of Kathe’s time is spent doing research. She
takes on more complicated and time-consuming questions that come to the
Virginia Room via email and she digs very deeply to answer them. Kathe
has gone so far as to visit cemeteries and courthouses in other counties
and also conduct research while on vacation in Boston and New York. She
has collected very interesting information on Fairfax County families and
in addition some of her thorough research has resulted in cash donations
to the Virginia Room.
Great Falls
Lynn Mobley
Lynne staffs the circulation desk twice a week and comes in at other
times when extra coverage is needed. She offers friendly, helpful and
courteous service. In addition to her work at the desk, Lynn helps empty
the delivery bins, locates books on the pick list, processes holds and
graciously shelves books when the need arises.
Kingstowne
Mary Bogdan
Mary Bogdan has been volunteering at Kingstowne since before it opened.
She is a steady and reliable Tuesday morning volunteer helping to process
deliveries. It is a comforting to know that we have such a diligent and
hard working volunteer.
Almetha Powell
Almetha Powell is a steady and reliable Thursday morning volunteer
helping to process deliveries. She has been at Kingstown since 2001. It
is a pleasure for the branch staff and especially for new volunteers, to
be greeted by Almetha’s friendly demeanor and welcoming smile.
Reston
Gail Osberg
Gail has been a member of the Reston Times newspaper indexing team since
1999 and has been the sole volunteer working on this project for the past
two years. This January, she hit a major milestone when she completed
indexing all issues of the 1970s. The index is included in the Fairfax
County Library’s home page and is used by historians and genealogists.
Her good humor, knowledge of Reston, and attention to detail make her an
invaluable volunteer and indexer extraordinaire.
Sherwood
Emma Montgomery
Emma is a dedicated pick list volunteer. She is at the branch
every Monday and Friday morning to look for customer holds. She even
willingly tackled a 16-page pick list just after Christmas!
Albert Opp
Albert has been volunteering at Sherwood’s circulation desk
since 2000. He provides essential coverage for staff meetings, helps to
promptly get materials checked in and answers the phones at the branch.
Thomas Jefferson
Barbara Swartchick
For over eight years, Barbara has faithfully come in each Wednesday
morning to process delivery materials for the Circulation Department. The
staff love her cheerfulness and expedient assistance. Additionally, she
has helped with the continuous book sale. She was most generous during
the Branches recent closing and moving in January, volunteering to shift
materials and perform tasks as needed.
Tysons-Pimmit
Wally Mack
Wally has been volunteering since 2004. He began helping with delivery,
but now focuses on finding pick list items and processing them for the
customers. He is a reliable volunteer coming in twice a week. Wally is
attentive to the fine details of a catalogued system and is one of the
few who will spot the rare miscataloged item.
Pohick
Bette Behringer, 3,000 hours!
Bette has been a valued circulation desk volunteer since 1991. She
performs all service desk duties diligently – welcoming and respecting
Pohick’s large and diverse clientele. She provides exceptional customer
service with a ready smile, exercising sound judgment and using friendly
scripts to deal with touchy situations. Although it’s a 20-mile commute
each way for her, Bette is loyal to the Pohick branch and comes every
Thursday to work a four-hour shift.
Exceptional Service Volunteers
These volunteers contributed their time and talents to a special project
or task over the past year which was beyond expectations for their branch
and the library system. They each receive a certificate and a Jefferson
Cup.
City of Fairfax
Priya and Robert D’Souza
This husband and wife team has volunteered at the City of
Fairfax Regional Library for the past eight years. They make a wonderful
technology team and have provided training for library customers in how
to use the Internet, library databases and Microsoft Office programs. On
a monthly basis, they teach the basics of either Microsoft Word, Excel,
Power Point or Access. Over the years, their instruction has reached over
1,000 library customers. Both Priya and Robert have excellent
communication skills and are enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge.
They are a great asset to the library community.
Kings Park
Shirley Wisotsky
Shirley’s willingness to help whenever and wherever needed was
highlighted this past year by her willingness to cover other volunteers’
lengthy absences and learning new tasks such as processing holds and
working on locating book from the various reports. She now regularly
volunteers twice a week. If called she will come in at a moment’s notice
and stay as long as needed, once even putting in an eight-hour day! She
recently volunteered to help recycle the holds slips by taking them home
to cut so the library can use them again. Shirley’s tremendous commitment
and flexibility is atypical and most welcome in this time of budget cuts
and scheduling changes.
John Marshall
Carol Dickerson
On her own initiative, Carol Dickerson has lent her time and talent as a
Master Gardener to transform several overgrown areas outside the John
Marshall Library into an inviting and beautifully landscaped exterior.
She actively recruited, trained and supervised volunteers from
organizations and corporations to help with the project. In addition,
Carol created a chart identifying the plants in each landscaped area that
both staff and the public use as a teaching tool and has presented a
program for the public on landscaping. Because of Carol’s efforts, the
Friends of the John Marshall Library no longer pay a private landscape
company to care for a memorial garden that she now maintains. Carol’s
creativity and expert green thumb have turned an eyesore into a beautiful
landscape appreciated by all who visit or pass by the John Marshall
Library.
Patrick Henry
David
Hegeler
David has had a critical role in Patrick Henry’s active gaming program
for two years, initially as a participant and now as a Gaming Assistant.
David has helped with over 40 program doing both the set up and tear down
of the many different gaming modules used as the branch including Wii
games, Dance Dance Revolution and online gaming. In addition he has
helped with set up for anime movies and assisting with visiting bands.
David’s cool manner is a comfort in the face of troubling technical
glitches and his polite and sensitive treatment of program attendants
have won him accolades from the branch staff as well as the parents of
participants.
Sherwood
Justin Panuski
Justin began volunteering only a year ago, but quickly proved
himself to be a stellar volunteer, willing and able to tack on any task
including the Missing List, moving collections and shelf reading. Justin
is a very precise shelf reader and in rapid time put the branch’s Science
Fiction collection into excellent shape. Following his success in SciFi
he moved on to the give Young Adults, Mystery, and Westerns the same
treatment. He has even recruited a friend to volunteer as well!
Woodrow Wilson
Hayley Lawrence and Lupita Parra
Hayley and Lupita teach computer classes in Microsoft Word,
Excel, Powerpoint, and Access to library customers and have received
enormous amounts of praise from the customers. They are very willing to
adapt their schedules to fit the classes on two Saturday afternoons and
do both group classes and one-on-one instruction. Although they
frequently teach as a team, if one person is unavailable the other steps
in and teaches solo. Hayley and Lupita serve the community by helping
people gain skills needed to do job applications, use computers more
efficiently in their work and to enhance their personal use of computers.
Their students say they have learned more at the Woodrow Wilson Library
for free than in other classes they have paid to take! Hayley and Lupita
are valued assets to the Woodrow Wilson community.
Robert Teachy
Robert has been volunteering as a part of Woodrow Wilson’s Chess Club
for the past year coaching children on a weekly basis. He teaches them
strategy, score keeping and higher chess skills. Robert also makes
special trips to the library before tournaments for additional coaching
sessions. As a result, several students did very well at the recent
Scholastic Chess Tournament. The branch staff and parents of these
children and are very grateful for his time and effort to teach the
children and lead them to success.
Technical
Operations
Denise Dorn
Denise began volunteering last fall with Interlibray Loan.
Since FCPL holdings were posted to OCLC’s WorldCat last year, requests to
lend our materials to customers of other library systems has grown to
over 500 per month. Denise handles every aspect of the requests from
evaluating them against our lending policies, placing holds on qualifying
items, communicating with the inquiring systems, preparing items for
shipping and then processing the returns. Denise’s professionalism and
attention to detail has resulted in an impressive impact on our relations
with other libraries and generated a priceless amount of goodwill.
Administration (Library
Foundation)
Joan Kane
Joan Kane provided enthusiastic and outstanding leadership for the Art
in the Pages projects going above and beyond her volunteer duties as
Chair of the Library Foundation Board of Directors. She staffed the
artist workspace for many weeks, prepared for the artist paint-in event,
sponsored a statue, recruited corporate partners, secured sponsorships
and worked with the local media to promote the projects. Joan also
assisted several days with helping to deliver the statues from early in
the morning to late at night. Thanks to her dedication this Foundation
and Library partnership was a huge success!
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