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Spirit Awards

So, that brings me to the fun part of my job – alumnae awards!  I am thrilled to be able to honor some of our alumnae achievers in the Great Lakes Area.  As you will see, our chapters and our alumnae are very busy throughout the year, and it is fitting to be able to recognize them each year at State Day, as well as to inform you of their amazing accomplishments.  I know you are all anticipating the upcoming collegiate awards, but I would hazard a guess that without the time and talent of our alumnae network , our RCD Pam Asher may not be able to report such outstanding results during the collegiate awards portion of the day. So sit tight while we recognize the accomplishments of our alumnae sisters!   

Our first award is the Traveling Gavel award, which is presented to the visiting alumnae chapter with the highest percentage of member attendance at State Day.  While we had outstanding participation from six of our alumnae chapters this year, Columbus, Dayton, Delaware, Kent, Northwest Ohio, and Youngstown, it seems there is no stopping the Kent Alumnae Chapter, as they take the honors for the fourth year in a row with 63% of its membership present today.  Congratulations Kent Alumnae!

Next we have the Lamplighter Awards.  The Lamplighter Award, established at State Day, 1981, is designed to acknowledge one member in each alumnae chapter who has given that extra bit of spark, devotion, and loyalty to her chapter as an officer or member.  This year, four chapters submitted Lamplighter award recipients.

This year's Youngstown Lamplighter recipient goes to a member who has increased her participation and involvement over the last year. She has been an alumnae member for a few years and her chapter has been happy to know her better whether through their Book Club or Alumnae meetings. She is a gentle and a fun spirit to be around and brought Twilight Mania to her alumnae chapter by suggesting Twilight as a book club selection.   Her nominator wrote, “We know her involvement will continue to increase. She planned on being here at State Day – her first one since her college days but broke her ankle in March 2011 and is to not bear weight until the end of April / May. We want to send her the warmest get well wishes and want to recognize her for getting back involved with DZ.”  This year’s Lamplighter Award for the Youngstown Area Alumnae is Diana Davis.

 Our next recipient has been an active member of the Dayton Alumnae Chapter.  Her nominator states, “She is the embodiment of sisterhood and the Delta Zeta spirit. As the chapter's treasurer, she stepped into a position that is not in her comfort zone, and has done it with gusto. She is always the first person to volunteer to help with any task, and her smiling face serves as a source of encouragement to her sisters. She also served for many years as Kappa Iota chapter's recruitment advisor, and is a LARGE factor in the Dayton Alumnae's recent membership increase in the past few years.”  Congratulations to this year’s Dayton Lamplighter recipient, Cindy Myers!

 Our third Lamplighter recipient comes from the Delaware Area alumnae chapter.  She is one of those alumnae that, frankly, I was surprised to learn hadn’t yet won this award.  Not only was this alumna a founding member of the Delaware Area alumnae chapter, she seems to do it all from advising the Alpha Rho chapter as their CCD to hosting both alumnae and collegiate events at her home – and she seems to attend every Delaware Area event. As a tribute to her leadership efforts, the Alpha Rho chapter had their most successful recruitment in recent memory this past year, and their chapter is currently above campus total. She also actively recruits and keeps alumnae involved on the Alpha Rho advisory board. And on top of everything else, she is also a member of the Columbus alumnae chapter.  I’m happy to announce that this year’s Delaware Area Lamplighter award goes to the more than deserving Traci Kennedy-Brockfield.

 Our final recipient is from the Columbus Alumnae Chapter.  She has been a part of the chapter for a short time since she is relatively new to central Ohio, but she surely has made her mark in a wonderful way - she jumped right into volunteering at last year's state day and started coming to other events right away. Her nominator writes, “Something like volunteering to host an event may seem like a small thing, but it's an awesome and generous thing to do and much appreciated by her sisters - especially since she is a newer member. It was also great to read about her on a national level – as there was a spotlight on her in the 2008-2010 Biennial Foundation Report where she explains why she includes the Delta Zeta Foundation in her trust.”  Congratulations to this year’s Columbus Lamplighter recipient, Jane Spurgeon!

Our next awards are the philanthropy awards, the Joan Dondrea Lowry and Helen Reimund “Love” awards.  These awards are named for two of our prominent Region V alumnae, and I’ll give you a brief background on these women as I present the awards. 

First, Joan Lowry has served as Foundation President and National Philanthropy Chairman.  The National “Joan Dondrea Lowry Public Relations Award” was established in honor of her tireless efforts in bringing public recognition to Delta Zeta's work with hearing and speech programs across the country. Joan is a past Ohio Outstanding Alumna award winner and has served as the Delta Zeta Foundation's liaison to both Gallaudet University and the House Ear Institute.

The Joan Dondrea Lowry Philanthropy Award is presented to the alumnae chapter donating the greatest time and money to the Delta Zeta Foundation.  This year’s recipient donated over $220.00 to the foundation, and contributed 10 service hours toward Delta Zeta Foundation related activities.  For the 3^rd year in a row, congratulations to the Dayton Area Alumnae Chapter on earning the 2011 Joan Dondrea Lowry Philanthropy Award.

 Our second philanthropy award is named for Helen Reimund, who was an English professor at Findlay College in the 1960s.  She was initiated into Theta Tau chapter at Findlay with many of her students in 1963, and served as the chapter’s first CCD.  Through her life, she treasured the Delta Zeta standards and gave graciously of what was hers.  The Findlay Alumnae Chapter originally presented the silver "Helen Reimund Love" silver candlesticks as an award in her honor, and the tradition continues today.  The award is presented to an alumnae chapter for supreme excellence in philanthropy - total money and time donated to philanthropic causes, the Delta Zeta Foundation, and local charities.  The statistics for this year’s recipient are truly amazing: they donated a total of $223.02 to the Foundation along with the Painted Turtle Camp and scholarship funds.  They have donated an amazing sum of $3054.00 to local charities.  The total amount of funds this alumnae chapter has donated is $3277.02.   If that number isn’t amazing enough, this chapter has also contributed 160 service hours and has had 5 different philanthropy related events, from walks for the March of Dimes and the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, to contributing funds to various causes during Founder’s Day and holiday meetings. For the fifth time in the last six years, the winner of the Helen Reimund “Love” Philanthropy Award is the Dayton Alumnae Chapter.

 Next we have the Lucile Crowell Cooks – Mella Cooks Davies Alumnae-Collegiate Chapter Relations Award.  This award was established in 1974 in honor of our former AAD Mella Davies and her mother Lucile Cooks, and is given to an alumnae chapter and a collegiate chapter for outstanding alumnae-collegiate programming, contributions and support. 

 We’re going to make a slight variation to this year’s awarding of the Collegiate-Relations award as we had 2 alumnae and collegiate chapters that have clearly gone above and beyond. 

 The first chapter I would like to recognize will be this year’s “honorable mention” for the Alumnae-Collegiate Chapter Relations Award.  It was clear from their nomination that alumnae/collegiate relations are the backbone of this alumnae chapter.  Both the Delaware Area Alumnae chapter and the Alpha Rho collegiate chapter have shown initiative to sponsor multiple events to promote alumnae-collegiate relations. From the nomination forms submitted, it seems that Alpha Rho has probably done the most of all the collegiate chapters nominated to initiate, plan, and organize events to which the alumnae were invited.  In addition, I would like to make a note of the alumnae support of this collegiate chapter – 6 of the 10 Delaware Area dues paying alumnae also serve as advisors for Alpha Rho.  For these many reasons, I’d like to award an honorable mention for alumnae-collegiate relations to the Delaware Area Alumnae Chapter and the Alpha Rho chapter at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Moving on to our winner of the Cooks-Davies Alumnae-Collegiate Relations Award, these two chapters have also demonstrated an incredible amount of interdependence.  The involvement of these alumnae are phenomenal - not only are they involved through advising, providing monetary support, and attending philanthropy events, but events such as their senior tea and mock recruitment serve as excellent personal mentoring opportunities.  The nominator for this award estimates that more than 500 hours each year are contributed by this chapter’s alumnae women in assistance to their collegiate chapter.  In addition, communication is a strength between these alumnae and collegiate chapters – it seems that they are in weekly communication to each other.  Also notable is that members of this collegiate chapter attended an alumnae meeting to present the results of their philanthropy projects as well as a chapter update.  It is my hope that alumnae and collegiate chapters will try to emulate the seamless and open communication between these two chapters.  Congratulations to this year’s winners, the Kent Alumnae Chapter and the Gamma Kappa Chapter at Kent State University for OUTSTANDING alumnae-collegiate relations. 

Our next award for today is the Outstanding Ohio Delta Zeta Alumna Award.  This award was established in 1984 and is presented in non-Convention years to an alumna member of Delta Zeta in Ohio who is actively involved in Delta Zeta, and has attained outstanding achievement in her career and/or community volunteer areas.

This year’s Outstanding Alumna attended Kent State University and graduated with a degree in communication in 1991.  She now lives in Louisville, Ohio, with her husband and their three children.  Outside of Delta Zeta this alumna enjoys traveling, skiing, running, and cooking.  She has a long list of positions held while she was a collegian:  Invitations Committee, Nominating Committee, Social Committee, Second Vice President of New Member Education, and President.  And her list of alumnae duties is no less impressive: she has served as a CCD, Provence Collegiate Director, RCC, and National New Member Education Chair.

This alumna is certainly very involved in her community.  Aside from her current occupation as a design consultant for Willow House, she is the head deacon at Paradise United Church.  It is at this church where one of her most notable accomplishments has come to fruition; she is the creator and chairperson for the “Lunch is On Us” program.  This program is conducted in conjunction with the Louisville Public Library's Summer Reading program for kids.  The church provides a hot lunch to any child 18 and under who shows up - no questions asked.  Their goal is to help children in their community who rely on the free and reduced food program during the school year as many of these kids don't get a healthy meal at home during the summer.  This program is much in need as forty percent of all kids enrolled in Louisville schools are on free/ reduced meal plans.  Lunch is On Us was very successful last summer as they fed an average of 75 kids per week without much advertisement of the program. They are expecting to feed at least 100 kids per week this summer through this program.

 Beyond her church involvement and the “Lunch is On Us” program, this alumna is also a Girl Scout troop leader, a Louisville Ministerial Association member, Back to School Backpack Program committee member, and Head Room Parent for Louisville Public Schools.   If only we all had so many hours in our day! 

Her nominator writes, “While she has not been a member of a local alumnae chapter for some years, she has given so much of her time to both Region Five as well as the National organization. Her appointments show that she is very dedicated to Delta Zeta and wants to see Delta Zeta grow as a sorority. I have worked for her both as a CCD and a member of the National New Member Education Committee. She always thought about the future of Delta Zeta and how the sorority can and should best adapt to the changing times. She is the true representation of what a Delta Zeta should be.” Congratulations to this year’s Outstanding Ohio Alumna, Jenn Anderson. 

Our next award is the Olive McCune Loyalty award.  This award is presented to an alumna member in Region V who has made a significant contribution to Delta Zeta Sorority through her loyalty, interest and devotion.  Just a little background on Ms. McCune – she was a member of the Alpha chapter in the early 1920s, and a charter member of the Cleveland Alumnae chapter. She promoted Delta Zeta enthusiastically wherever she went, and her loyalty and dedication to Delta Zeta were contagious.  She attended many national conventions and was loved by a wide network of Delta Zeta sisters.  Our former AAD Mella Davies remarked that she was a student in her second grade classroom, and because Ms. McCune and her mother were Delta Zeta sisters, she was recruited from 2nd grade onward.   

This year’s recipient was initiated into the Gamma Tau chapter in 1994, and graduated with a degree in psychology in 1998.  During her collegiate years she served as chapter president not once, but twice.  She went on to earn her juris doctorate in women’s studies from the University of Akron in 2006.  In the past she has been active in the Cleveland Westside-Berea chapter, serving as their collegiate relations chair, their Lamp editor, and their ritual advisor.  This alumna is also a member of the virtual Surfing Sisters Alumnae Chapter.  At the national level, she has participated on the collegiate relations committee as well as assisting with the national nominating committee.  This alumna has facilitated with regional officer training and has been a past presenter at Region V State Day.  She is currently the president of the Kent Alumnae Chapter, along with acting as both the Membership Advisor and the Risk Management Advisor for the Gamma Kappa chapter.

 Outside of Delta Zeta, this alumna and her husband live in Cuyahoga Falls, and she enjoys traveling and collecting jewelry.  She volunteers as a Legal Guardian for children in the foster care system as well as acting as a vocal social justice advocate. 

Here are some comments about this year’s recipient from our awards committee:

 "She is genuine and really enjoys working with collegiate chapters. She has served as an advisor for 3 [different chapters] - Gamma Alpha, Gamma Kappa and Gamma Tau. I met her when she was a member of the Cleveland Westside chapter, and she is now serving Kent alumnae as president. I have watched her develop over the years and I believe her love for DZ and her dedication and loyalty more than qualify her for serious consideration."

Her nominator Nikki Hammes writes, “Dayna is truly the most dedicated Delta Zeta I know. This is most evident through her work with the Gamma Kappa women. She is their biggest cheerleader, and works tirelessly for the chapter. She gives up weeks of her life at a time to help with Recruitment, and relishes in the chapter's success. She certainly loves her Gamma Kappa girls, and they, too, love her. Along the way, she's become something of a Recruitment expert, and has assisted other chapters by conducting workshops and visiting during their Recruitments. Her passion for Delta Zeta continues to grow.  She has proven, over and over again, to herself and those around her that she IS an astounding sister, one we should all be proud of. To me, she is a role model. I cannot say with full certainty that I would be an active alumna today if it was not for her lead. She loves this organization, and truly gives it her all. That is why she has gotten so much back. I cannot imagine a sister more loyal to the sorority and its ideals. Dayna Hloska is truly is a light in the flame.” 

Ok, now for the last alumnae award of the day.  The Outstanding Alumnae Chapter title is awarded to the one chapter that demonstrates outstanding membership, programming, philanthropy and assistance to local organizations, as well as contributions to the Delta Zeta Foundation.  The basis for this award is the information provided on the annual Alumnae Chapter Review Form.

This year’s recipient increased their dues paying membership by 6 members, and their best attended meeting this past year had an attendance of 20 alumnae.  This chapter continually achieves stunning philanthropic results, and also sends out a monthly e-newsletter to keep in contact with their members.  You may remember that this chapter was awarded this same honor last year, and I’m happy to report that they’ve improved beyond their own statistics from the 2009-2010 year.  Compared to their reporting from last year, they have donated more funds to the Foundation, they have increased their number of service hours completed, and they have contributed even more money to local charities.  So although this chapter was worthy of this award last year, they are even more deserving this year.  For the second year in a row, the Outstanding Alumnae Chapter award goes to the Dayton Alumnae chapter.

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