Cripe Receives Volunteer Of Year Award At United Way Annual Meeting
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Denny Cripe received the Volunteer Of The Year Award Thursday for his contributions to United Way of Kosciusko County. The award was presented during the organization’s annual meeting and volunteer celebration at Center Lake Pavilion. Cripe has been a two-term board member and has been involved with United Way since 2009. He has assisted with the annual Day of Caring both as a volunteer and as a volunteer inspector. He advocated for the move into United Way’s current office space and assisted with renovations by painting. He has participated in United Way’s Education Vision Council Kevin Deardorff, Lake City Bank, served as emcee, for Thursday’s event. Deardorff announced $1,900,213 was raised during the 2013 United Way campaign. United Way donated $1,000 to one of its partner programs that is one of the programs funded by United Way. The requirements included that either the agency director or the program manager had to be in attendance at the luncheon and the $1,000 has to be used for operational expenses of the program. The winner of the $1,000 was Kosciusko Community Senior Services with Executive Director Dennis Judy in attendance to receive the contribution. In the business portion of the meeting, Joel Harstine, United Way Board of Directors president, announced board members who are completing their second term are Erin Rowland Jones, Denny Cripe and Everett Nifong. Board members elected to serve their second term year were Kitty Cheatham, Tony Garza, Josh Gordon and Brad Hinkle. New board members are Adam Turner and Nathan Conley. Day of Caring awards were presented to Tim Klowetter, DePuy Synthes and Jody Melton, Zimmer, for coordinating efforts for volunteers at their workplaces. Day of Caring is a United Way sponsored event that was held in August when 79 home improvement projects were completed by more than 1,000 volunteers in nine Kosciusko County communities. Employee Advancement Awards were presented to DePuy Synthes, Paragon Medical, Tower Bank and the town of Winona Lake. The awards are presented to companies whose employees contribute more than their employee challenge which was set at the beginning of the campaign. Awards of Excellence were presented to Lake City Bank, Mid City Supply Company and United Way of Kosciusko County. The awards are presented to companies who have run an employee campaign at their full potential. Key Leader of the Year awards were presented to Tabitha Cooper and Jamie Gift, both of Paragon Medical. The award is for key leaders who are responsible for internal campaigns within their place of employment. They plan and organize workplace events while providing an opportunity to learn about the issues being addressed by United Way partner programs. Cooper and Gift raised employee participation by 21 percent in the campaign and they assisted in increasing employee donations by 47 percent in 2013. United Way Pacesetters were recognized for organizing employee campaigns to raise funds for United Way. Pacesetters DePuy Synthes and Paragon Medical together in 2013 pledged $523,132 for the United Way campaign.
