Houston Regional Group - News

2001 Annual Group Awards

2001 ANNUAL GROUP AWARDS were presented to members that gave special effort in support of the Club during the past year. Sierrans honored are as follows:

UNSUNG SIERRAN AWARDS:

Barbara Batten for her dedication and on-going assistance with our club phone lines. Barbara assembles, addresses and mails our membership packets. This is one of those behind the scene administrative tasks and an important continuous responsibility.

Stephen Bates for his commitment with our Political Committee. The Houston Group's political committee is responsible for reviewing and endorsing candidates for local elections. Steve's contribution to the political committee provided significant organizational information and research efforts and also gave useful insight and input on the candidates.

FUNDRAISING AWARD:

Thane DePuey for his dedication to oversee and chair our Annual Auction. Thane has successfully solicited and collected an untold number of items for our annual auction. He also organized all the paperwork, activity and details required to effectively hold an annual auction. His spirit, commitment and dedication for the past several years has insured the success of our fundraising auction each year.

OUTINGS SERVICE AWARD:

Steve Green for his successful commitment to establishing a safe canoe and natural waterways program for the youth served by Houston ICO. Steve led three weekend canoe outings and a day outing for ICO last year. Steve shares his knowledge and experience as a paddler and river guide on each outing. He has selected the location and prepaddled each of the river trails we have taken, he scouts out river side camping spots and locations of natural interests and safe canoeing instruction for ICO leaders and the youth participating on each outing. Special thank you on behalf of Steve to Don Greene of White Water Experience, for his more than generous support our canoe outings.

Lorraine Gibson for her achievement of becoming Houston ICO's first leader to successfully perform all levels of the ICO leader responsibility for three day outings last year. This includes for each trip, developing the outings destination and agenda, coordination with the agency and the youth's family or guardians, successfully planning and implementing transportation and meal plan, volunteer recruitment and organization for each outing as well as equipment selection, organization, cleanup and return to appropriate equipment bin. In addition to Lorraine's ICO trips, She is also active with the club's outing program. Lorraine has successfully organized and led several popular weekend trips and served as assistant leader on national trips. She is a member of the Executive Committee and has served as Treasurer for two years.

SERVICE AWARDS:

Jarrett Kupcinksi a) for establishing and maintaining ICO' relationship with the Chinquapin School and Chinquapin students. The Chinquapin school was Houston ICO's primary agency with whom we have worked last year; b) for his commitment to developing an ICO youth leadership program and his participation in our adult ICO leader program; and c) for his participation in all four of the ICO/Chinquapin weekend outings last year , except the all girl's weekend. Jarrett, selects, prescreens and prepares students for each outing, distributes/collects all paperwork, drives Chinquapin students in their school van on each outing, and has co-lead each of the outings as well.

Angie Langolf for her amazing enthusiasm and commitment to Houston ICO. Angie participated in either coordinating, leading or co-leading all six of ICO weekend outings and three of our day outings last year. Her enthusiasm, commitment and abundance of ideas for making ICO better, as well has her fitness, outings skills, and love for sharing the outdoors with others, make Angie the perfect chair to guide Houston ICO these next years.

George Batten a) for his commitment to Houston ICO safety and adult leadership programs by evaluating and providing our members monthly informative articles, abstracts, and valuable feedback to enhance ICO leaders skills and abilities; and b) for leading/co-leading four of Houston ICO weekend outings and participating in another five weekend and day outings with ICO. George is a man of many talents - driving the van, firestarting and cooking on our day cookouts with younger youth, facilitating campfire entertainment, and providing informative and fun programs for the youth to learn about the natural areas we visit and the honor and responsibility of the stewardship of our environment. In addition to George's ICO commitments, George has also served on our Executive Committee, Political Committee, Nominating and Elections Committee.

Martha Bowman for her service and dedication as our newsletter Editor. On an ongoing basis for the past year, Martha has insured that our newsletter, "The Bayou Banner" is completed and printed in time each month. Additionally, Martha also has arranged and organized advertisements for our newsletter.

Carol Lee for her on-going and reliable help with our hospitality and refreshment table at our General Meetings. She has provided useful insight on deciding what should be served at the table. Carol also distributes and collects our volunteer sign-up sheets.

Tom Outlaw for serving as our Auctioneer for our yearly fundraising auction each year. Tom has made a significant contribution to the success of our fundraising auction each year. Tom has done a great job in making our auction an entertaining experience and at the same time encouraging folks to bid.

CONSERVATION AWARD:

Page Williams has been the Group's point person on coastal issues in recent years. She has represented the Club for more than two years on the Port of Houston Authority's Citizens Advisory Group with regard to the Bayport Container Terminal. She has also served as the Group's representative to the Galveston Bay Foundation. Page has been active on a wide variety of wildlife, habitat, and animal welfare issues, including the recent revision of shrimping regulations. And she has been an invaluable liaison to other conservation groups.

February 2002

Last updated:  10/02/2005.   Content © 1999-2001 by the Sierra Club.