City of Newark Recognizes Volunteers

From the City of Newark:

The City of Newark held its annual volunteer recognition program on Wednesday, May 15th.  

The program honored individuals who volunteered directly for the City of Newark and individuals who were nominated for the honorable Viola Blythe Awards for the work that they do in their community.  

Mayor Alan Nagy stated, “If not for our volunteers, we could not provide the citizens of Newark the level of service beyond what our own resources will allow and for that reason, we are truly indebted to these caring, compassionate people”.  

He went on to acknowledge the volunteers who helped out in the City as members of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), ARES/HAM operators, or R.A.V.E.N. (Ready, Active, Volunteers, Engaged in Newark), graffiti abatement volunteers, Police Reserves, Police Explorers, Jr. Lifeguards, Youth Basketball volunteers, Police Chaplin, and Senior Center volunteers.  

Mayor Nagy also acknowledged the many individuals and groups that were nominated for either the Viola Blythe Youth Award; the Viola Blythe Senior Award; the Viola Blythe Group Award; and the Viola Blythe Volunteer of the Year Award.

This year’s winner of the Viola Blythe Group Award was awarded to Dino’s Grill.  Dino’s Grill provides support to Newark’s schools.  They help with fundraising by donating food for family dinners and bingo nights.  The employees, in addition, volunteer their time by attending and serving at the events.

The winner of the Viola Blythe Senior Award is Margrith Reichmuth.  Margrith, a former Supervisor at the Senior Center before retiring, continues to show her love for the seniors.  She volunteers as the Coordinator for trips and senior escort programs as well as helping with the Mercy Brown Bag program and bingo.

Justin Morua was announced as the winner of the Viola Blythe Youth Award.  Justin is an Honor Roll student at St. Edward’s School in Newark.  Justin gathered his friends and organized a toy drive at St. Edward’s to collect new toys that were donated to the Viola Blythe Community Service Christmas Party.  Justin has been providing this service for the past two years.

The winner of the Viola Blythe Volunteer of the Year Award is Melinda Picken.  Melinda was a teacher in the Newark Unified School District for over 32 years!  That definitely shows Melinda’s love for teaching and even after retirement, she continues to be involved in education. 

Melinda volunteers with first through sixth graders helping them advance their reading skills.

Winners were chosen by a committee whose members are not affiliated with Newark.