The Edie Robinson Community Service Award Now accepting nominations for 2023 and 2024 It is again time to nominate two new recipients of the Edie Robinson Community Service Award (ERCSA) for 2023 and 2024.
Rolling Stones by Alexa Davidson Executive Director
It has officially been eight months in my new role as Executive Director. The transition has been seamless. Guided by the support of our team, our board, our partners, our supporters and our community residents, we have wel- comed in the new, while also ensuring that
ERCSA was created in 1999 as a way of permanently honoring Edie Robinson’s many years of community service, and honors community volunteers who make outstanding, long-term contributions to life in the San Geronimo Valley. The award recognizes positive achievement, devotion, and community building. The ERCSA committee initi- ates a broad community nomination and decision process, to choose recipients. The recipient’s portraits will be rendered by Anne McClain and added to the beautiful ERCSA Award Triptych that hangs in the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. The new recipients will be honored at the Healthy Community Collaborative annual barbeque on Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at the Community Center.
we preserve the legacy of the Center and all that it has been for over five decades. While the first eight months have been truly fantastic, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t faced challenges. The storms in February 2024 were a real test of leadership, partner- ships, and teamwork. I am very proud of how the San Geronimo Valley Community Center demonstrated exceptional resilience and efficiency in its response to the storms and associated power out- ages. Swiftly springing into action, our team established a crucial charging and warming station (even while we were out of power ourselves), offering essential services to the community. Partnering with VERG (Valley Emergency Readiness Group), we conducted door-to-door outreach to areas experiencing prolonged outages, ensuring that residents were informed and supported. VERG also provided the Community Center with a small generator to keep us online during the storm. Collaborating with County Public Health, Marin County Fire Department, and Supervisor Rodoni’s office, we advocated, made plans… and back-up plans that would allow us to be responsive as the situation evolved. Despite challenges in com- munication during the outages, our use of social media, email, the readerboard, and direct outreach allowed us to get important infor- mation out to residents. We aim to educate the community that, in future disasters, as long as it is safe to travel to the Community Center, they can rely on our team’s rapid and comprehensive response. Operating under our Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP), our dedicated team members, temporarily reassigned from their usual roles, successfully provided senior lunch, food bank programs, charging and warming operations, and crucial communi- cation tasks. With the Community Gym in operation as a charging station, we were also able to provide kids and families with safe and fun recreation activities while school was closed due to the outages. While this column gives me an opportunity to share the victories and the challenges at the Center, it is also a place where you can get to know me as an individual. One big highlight of the last few months is that my younger sister Sophie Davidson, who is a beloved staff member at the Community Center, was accepted by Samuel Merit into their Occupational Therapy program! She will be graduating from San Francisco State with her bachelors in May and then will begin this program in Fall 2024. I am so excited for her and feel confident that she will make a big difference in her work. Another very fun highlight is the addition of a new furry friend to our family. My husband Danny and I adopted a three-legged kitten named Fiona from the Sonoma Humane Society in mid-January and we are having so much fun. She is playful, sweet, and totally unbothered by the fact that she is missing an appendage. Adopting an animal is such an incredible thing to do. The Center partners closely with Marin Humane who provides pet food and supplies at our food bank. If you are considering a pet, I highly recommend rescuing an animal from Marin Humane or another local shelter or adoption agency. I wish you all a happy and healthy Spring and invite you to join us at the many fun events we have planned. See you soon!
Portrait of Edie Robinson by Anne McClain
The following is a list of all recipients to date: 1999- Edie Robinson; 2000- Jean Berensmeier; 2001- Grace Tolson; 2002- Suzanne Sadowsky; 2003- John Beckerley; 2004- Zoila Berardi; 2005- Steve Pinkney; 2006- Ken Naffziger; 2007- Margaret and Kit Krauss; 2008- Diana Debardeleben; 2009- David O’Connor; 2010- Marty Meade; 2011- Cia Donahue; 2012- Amy Valens; 2013- Phil Sotter; 2014-Richard Sloan; 2015- Aneice Taylor; 2016- Melvyn Wright; 2017-Joseph Walsh; 2018- Al and Lisa Baylacq; 2019- Andrew and Susi Giacomini; 2020-Kelly Hunt Miceli; 2021-Anne McClain; 2022 Howie Cort. Nominations can come from Valley organizations or individuals and must address the following: 1. How has this person demonstrated their long-term commitment to volunteerism and better- ment of our community? 2. Describe their broad reach, impacting more than one organization or area of the community. 3. Tell us about this person’s character and why they deserve to be recognized for their service. 4. Anything else that is important for the committee to know about your nominee. Criteria: • This award is for volunteer service, not for contributions through a paid position. • Volunteer service must be long-term and over a life-time, beyond a single contribution to the community. • Nominees must live in the San Geronimo Valley. • Volunteer service should have a broad impact, rather than be specific to a single organization.
How to Nominate: Deadline for nominations is on Friday, May 10, 2024, by 5 pm. Please email or mail your nomination letter addressing the above to: Email: adavidson@sgvcc.org
Mail to: San Geronimo Valley Community Center c/o Alexa Davidson PO Box 194, San Geronimo CA 94963
You can also email your nomination to: edierobinsonaward@sgvcc.org
We look forward to receiving your nominations!
Credits Stone Soup is printed four times a year and reflects the diverse cultural interests of the Community Center and the Valley. Though it is a publication of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, it is meant as a journal for everyone in or around the Valley. We are interested in your input. If you have any comments, ideas for articles or columns, news, art, stories, poetry, photography, or information for the Milestones column, please forward them to: The Stone Soup Editorial Committee c/o San Geronimo Valley Community Center, 6350 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. P.O. Box 194, San Geronimo, CA 94963. Phone 415-488-8888 • email: dfogel@sgvcc.org, or visit www.sgvcc.org. Stone Soup does not exercise editorial control on the content of submissions by organizations, byline columnists, or display ads. We reserve the right to refuse to publish ads or submissions. Editorial Committee: Danielle Fogel, Alexa Davidson, David Russ Proofreading: Dave Cort, Alexa Davidson, Larry Rippee, Danielle Fogel, Helen Ferlino, Albert DeSilver, Poko Giacomini Production: David Russ, Russ Ranch Productions
Printing: Marin Sun Ads: Danielle Fogel
David Bernard, President Liora Soladay, Co-Vice President Alexander McQuilkin, Co-Vice President John Beckerley, Secretary Owen Clapp, Treasurer David Lakes Kelly Lawson Wyatt Miceli, NextGen Amy Waterhouse Bonny White San Geronimo Valley Community Center Board Members Carolina Balazs Sarah Brewster Matthew Brockley Buddy Faure, NextGen Zachary Goodman Brandon Johnson
Meet Fiona
Page 2 SGV Community Center Stone Soup
Jean Berensmeier, Founder
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