 I would like to welcome you to the 41st annual Santa Rosa Merit Awards ceremony. My name is Mayor Rogers, and I will be doing the welcome. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. I'd like to welcome the 2023 Merit Award recipients, the people who nominated them, the members of the Santa Rosa City Council, the Merit Award Committee, and everyone else that is here tonight. Thank you all for coming. The Santa Rosa Merit Awards began in 1978, when the City Council wanted a way to acknowledge and honor the efforts of those citizens who go above and beyond to make a difference in their community. The Merit Award Committee was formed as a subcommittee of the Board of Community Services. They are hardworking volunteers who see the value in promoting and celebrating the outstanding volunteers in Santa Rosa. So I am sorry. I'm going to pause and I'm going to ask all of us to give them a wonderful round of applause for all the Merit Awards. Acknowledge those who go above and beyond in several categories. Strengthening neighborhoods, environmental sustainability, community heroes, serving others, particularly young people, seniors, and those that are in need. Santa Rosa has many unsung heroes, and we wish we could give them all awards. But we are so pleased to be here honoring 13 individuals and groups tonight whose accomplishments have made a difference in people's lives and have made Santa Rosa a better place. I want to thank the Merit Awards Committee, Carolina Spence, who is the Chair, John Sawyer, who cannot be here tonight, Diane Test, Grace Villa-Farante, and Karen Weeks. Thank you all for making this event possible. I would now like to introduce Carolina Spence, Board of Community Services member and Chair of the Merit Awards Committee. Thank you, Mayor Rogers. It has been my pleasure to chair the Merit Award Committee this year. The Merit Award began in April with a call to the community for nominations. Then the Merit Award Committee reviewed, selected from all of these wonderful nominations to finalize the list of the honorees that we are celebrating tonight. During the evening ceremony, each committee member will take a few moments to describe the achievements of the Merit Award winner. We will invite the individual or group to come up and stand by the Mayor to accept their award during the presentation. Your photograph will be taken at that time. Remember, you can frame it for Christmas gifts, so don't forget. I would like to introduce Councilmember Jeff Acrepe to announce the first category. Slight size difference. The Strengthing Neighborhoods category recognizes those who strengthen and enrich our neighborhoods, making them more connected, resilient, and enjoyable for all residents. I'm going to go off slightly off script because I love these two award winners because it's from where I grew up in Bennett Valley and where I live now in Coffee Park. Can I ask the Coffee Park Holiday Parade organizers to come on up? So we have Travis, Cameron, Steve, and Steve. Is that correct? Okay. In 2017, right before the holidays, the City of Santa Rosa endured the devastating Tubbs Fire. Inspired by the fire wreckage came the idea for the Coffee Park Holiday Parade. What began three years ago with a small group of volunteers as a little 24 car holiday parade in Coffee Park neighborhood has grown into a beloved community event with over 80 cars. The idea behind this event was to bring a parade to people rather than the other way around. As one of the crews stated, we do this because we love our community and it brings out the little kid in all of us, which we all can use. With the destruction of the Coffee Park neighborhood during that fire, this was a way to share some joy. Every year it has grown and added more fun and excitement. The volunteer organizers raised funds to help with the decorations and other associated costs. The community lines the streets in Coffee Park and cheers as friends and neighbors in lighted and decorated cars go by. Special guests have included many car clubs, police and fire departments, wine country balloon, the Grinch, and of course Santa. This sense of neighborhood and resiliency is something to be truly admired and honored. And we are honored to present the Coffee Park holiday parade organizers with the 2023 Merit Award. Well, we're in for a fun evening, changing this every two minutes. Our next awardee is the Save the Bennett Valley Golf Course. This is a large enthusiastic group. So we're going to ask them to start wandering up here so they can have their picture taken when I'm through talking about you. So I think there's 10 or 12 of you. So, yeah, there we go. Perfect, perfect. Oh, come on, there's more than this. Here they come. The Save the Bennett Valley Golf Course group is a perfect example of a community effort that started with a few volunteers and multiple over 4,000 in a few days. The development of the group is a testament to the power of social media and the dedication of the community members concerned with the future of the Bennett Valley Golf Course. The city was looking for a way to produce sustainable revenue to support the golf course ongoing needs. And the community group was looking for ways to do the same without repurposing the site for housing, thus reducing the size of the golf course footprint. Ultimately, both have the same fundamental goal in mind. The community group helped move the city from considering any development of the site for housing. Save the Bennett, my God, there's a lot of you. I don't know what to say. Save the Bennett Valley Golf Course group applied for and received a 501C3 non-profit organization status that provides a method for potential fundraising and donation support. You know that story I told you about, this is not a long evening. They gathered an impressive set of professionals, including those involved in finance and engineering, restaurant management, golf course management, operations, and the media. This group also assisted the city's ad hoc committee in reviewing the requests for proposal to choose a consultant for selecting a golf course management company. We thank them for all they have done and to support an inclusive environment in which to move forward with all the crucial decisions necessary to maintain a successful and sustainable community asset in the future. We are honored to present a 2023 Merit Award to save the Bennett Valley Golf Course. I'd like to introduce Councilman Mark Stapp who will announce the next category. And I promise the Michael Award. Oh, thank you, Carolina. It is my honor to present the environmental sustainability category of Merit Awards. And in Sonoma County, we take our environmentalism seriously. So to win an award here, you gotta be doing something pretty good. And these awards go to people who are working to protect the environment, whether it's species preservation, whether it's land use, whether it's open space preservation, and of course to promote sustainability. And so with that, I'll introduce Grace who will introduce our award winner. We purposely got the lowest podium for me and Diane. Our next recipient is Reka Molnar. Unfortunately, Reka cannot attend tonight's event, but we will ensure she receives the award. Reka is a caring and dedicated individual who spends multiple days a week volunteering her time by cleaning up trash along our city's creeks. She regularly volunteers at organized creek cleanup events, organizers are cleanup projects with others, and picks up bags of trash on her regular daily walks. She is passionate about protecting wildlife and the environment, promoting the end of single use plastic, and encouraging organizations to prioritize trash cleanup. Reka was motivated to get involved in this community work in 2016 when she stopped by a booth for Clean River Alliance. She wanted to channel her frustration with current political events into something positive and became actively involved with Russian river keepers. Reka has volunteered numerous times with organized cleaning events hosted by various organizations. She has also made cleaning up trash a daily practice, bringing a bag with her when she takes her daily walks, frequently bringing home several pounds of trash. Reka says that when you pick up trash regularly, you see more trash everywhere. She states her favorite part about volunteerism is working with others who are as passionate as she is and says that working together makes lighter work for everyone. Congratulations to Reka Molnar. Thank you for your work to protect and beautify our community. I wanna introduce Council Member Chris Rogers who will announce the next category, should we try it? So we actually had a pretty epic high five earlier and Grace looked at me and she's like, we never can do that again. So I'm very proud to introduce our next category. It is our Community Heroes Award. This category is designed to honor folks who have gone above and beyond in our community who have used their strength, their commitment, their perseverance and yes, their self-sacrifice to better our community. I think you'll agree when you see our recipients that many of them have been doing this for decades in Santa Rosa and this recognition is very, very well deserved. Our next recipient is Rita Kagan and I'd like to invite Rita to come up front as well as the entire Community, Jewish Community Clinic. So come on up. Rita, Rita? Rita, can you raise your hand? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. There's so many of them. Since the inception of the Jewish Community Free Clinic 23 years ago, Rita Kagan has volunteered two shifts or more each week in her volunteer role as a registered nurse. The clinic cares for vulnerable, uninsured patients who often have to choose between healthcare or food on the table. Rita serves every patient with respect and safe healthcare. She regularly asks each person what she can do to help today. Rita's tasks include screening patients for tuberculosis, offering vaccines, diabetic testing, providing physical information for school entry and assisting with COVID-19 vaccines. She records patients' vitals in their health record, performs readings for blood pressure and reviews medications to assess what's working or not. During COVID, she never missed a shift with her mask, face shield and PPE and performed her nursing duties. Over the years, Rita has mentored dozens of volunteers to continue the tradition of dedicating their talents to those less fortunate. Rita lives the mission of the Jewish Community Free Clinic through charity and repairing the world. The clinic has stated we wouldn't know what to do without Rita. Congratulations, Rita. Lawn enforcement chaplaincy service in Sonoma County, come on down. This event used to be held at city council chambers and COVID made us reimagine how to put it on and look, now we can spread out and have folks. Since 1999, the Sonoma County Lawn Enforcement Chaplaincy has provided immediate support and emotional care to first responders, their families and members of our community who have suffered tragedy and loss. This program sends highly trained volunteers into situations that are sometimes the worst moments of people's lives and they are available 24 seven, 365 days a year. Chaplains are most often called in by law enforcement. Executive director Rita Constantini says, we care about the wellbeing of our local first responders. Many chaplains have friends and or family members who are sworn peace officers or work in emergency services. Being there for them during the most traumatic or critical calls helps reduce the negative, emotional, spiritual and mental impact. Likewise, we all feel like if we or someone we loved experienced the unexpected death of a loved one, we would want the officer to bring a chaplain on scene to help us navigate those first few hours riddled with shock, disbelief and immense grief. We lead with kindness and compassion. The chaplaincy service is currently made up of 42 highly trained chaplains. The work is described by those who do it as heart wrenching, challenging, yet deeply rewarding. Their instructions are simple, be with the people. Comfort them as you can, whether in silence or with words. Their program motto is simply being there. Rita says the chaplains are uniquely different. Call them under pressure and forever empathetic. They're sweet people and tough at the same time who are willing to give them themselves. And while most community members don't know about our service, we know that when we are needed, it can make all the difference because even easing the pain a tiny bit matters in the long run. We are honored to present the law enforcement chaplaincy service of Sonoma County with the 2023 San Amorosa Merit Award. Ruth Norman, would you please come to the front? Ruth Norman has spent much of her life caretaking. With her advanced degrees in timber management, her 17 year career with the Forest Service and two years with Cal Fire, she has parlayed her knowledge into action as a generous volunteer for the city of Santa Rosa. Ruth has dedicated the first Saturday of every month to clearing and cleaning the Santa Rosa Creek and the Prince Memorial Greenway for 20 years, often being the first to arrive and the last to finish. As a Creek steward, she has crawled on rocks and removed non-native invasive plants and trash, enhancing the Creek's health and visual appeal. Ruth continues to volunteer at the city's Park of Month monthly park cleanups. Importantly, Ruth is the longest serving Tombstone Trio volunteer. The trio members care for the 15 acre Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, which includes 5,500 graves of residents from the 1850s to 1930s. Twice a week, year round, she generously volunteers her skills, knowledge and efforts to keep the Rural Cemetery a beloved place where our local historical persons have found their final resting place. Restoration includes removing weeds and trash and other tasks, such as removing trees and ivy, restoring headstones and cleaning historic buildings. We thank you, Ruth, for being a community hero and for your steadfast work in caring for our many creeks, parks and the Rural Cemetery here in Santa Rosa. Congratulations. Okay, Steve, you're up. Welcome to Steve Rabinowitz. Tell you, whoops. I just, so when we got the nomination for Steve, thought, oh, he's won one before, so we're going back through past winners. I do not, I cannot believe that you never got one before, so here you are. For anyone who's been in Santa Rosa for a while, I'm sure you've benefited from Steve's volunteer work and passion for preserving open space, providing us a way to experience nature and all its beauty. Steve has spent over 30 years preserving open space in Sonoma County, including helping to establish the Sonoma County Agricultural and Open Space District. While on the Santa Rosa City Council, from 1998 to 2006, Steve spearheaded the drive to create the 1.3-mile Prince Memorial Greenway, an urban trail on both sides of Santa Rosa Creek in downtown Santa Rosa. As stated in his nomination, the Greenway may not have happened if not for Steve. In addition, Steve has also been integral to the Southeast Greenway Project and has worked for many years to achieve the reality and continues to further its creation. The Greenway is also at the heart of the bikeway system linking Santa Rosa Creek to the Joe Radota Trail and the Smart Bike Path. Steve says, I believe open space is vital for our physical and mental health. As a side note, that photograph there shows Steve's 38-year-old son, Jackson, who is here tonight, holding the Creek Dreams Revealed Idea Book, which pictures the five-year-old Jackson on the cover. And this book was Steve's inspiration for the Prince Memorial Greenway and Citywide Creek Restoration. And former city staff still remember that book. Congratulations, Steve, on being a 2023 Merit Award recipient. Well deserved. Could we, could for one second, could you go up and stand with your dad and do a picture? Thank you. Thank you. It's always our pleasure to humiliate any adult child if we can. We're liking it. Our next award recipient is Mr. Dustin Zuckerman. Could you come up, Mr. Zuckerman? There you are. Anybody who has a library card, would you just raise your hand? This is the reason why you have library cards. When Plato first stated, necessity is the mother of invention. He must have channeled the future of Dustin Zuckerman. Dustin has provided free tools to the Santa Rosa and Sonoma County residents for 15 years. Dustin, a library technician by trade, you get the connection, came up with the idea of a free tool lending library when he had a small job doing landscaping project. He found he needed a tamper to smooth the surface. He priced him at the hardware store and found the cost would eat up his net profit. This reality prompted him to investigate the idea of checking out commonly used tools the same way books are checked out at the library. He started a small loaning tools out of his apartment. I gotta tell you, I really love that part. Within two years, he had a board of directors and a nonprofit status. He has grown the Santa Rosa Tool Library steadily ever since, acquiring more tools with community improvement grants from the city of Santa Rosa. Donations and proceeds from an annual event of donated secondhand tools each October. Last year, 5,000 people throughout the county took advantage of the unique free service to check out small tools for numerous home maintenance and improvements, big and small. Dustin says, we all live in a throwaway society. Do you say that, Dustin? Says you do. I love seeing people reuse stuff. He's all for sustainability, community building and other positive effects of tool sharing. Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to introduce Merit Award recipient, Dustin Zuckerman. I would like to introduce our vice mayor, Diana McDonald, who will announce the next category. But I have so many questions about that cat. Like, what in the heck are you feeding that thing? Giant, oh my God. Okay, I'm sorry, I'll stick to this script. My council members are terrified right now. So I have the unique pleasure of being able to announce the Serving Others category. The Serving Others category recognizes groups and individuals for their contribution towards improving the lives of others in Santa Rosa, especially young people, seniors and those in need. This award, there are two people who are getting an award and we were going to bring them up together. But we're gonna, since one of them is unable to be here, we're gonna start with Tyler Moore. Come on up, Tyler. Tyler has made it his mission and with all the diverse to volunteer with all the diverse opportunities the Redwood Food Bank has to offer. He volunteers almost every day. You can usually find him in the kitchen collective cooking up something tasty for the participants in food connections, stocking shelves, helping the partner organization shop, handing out food to people at the distribution site. He has even been seen as an afternoon cafe driver and supported the community fundraiser. He is everywhere. Tyler is always willing to lend a helping hand and he's happy to jump in whenever help is needed. The volunteer production supervisor, David, says about Tyler. Tyler has great work ethic. His commitment to helping in any way is great. He is super friendly, loves to build friendships with other volunteers. Tyler also brings staff and volunteers beautiful flowers from his garden and that certainly brightens everyone's day. Now, before we give Tyler his award, is there someone here to pick up Alice and Bakers? Oh, this nice lady in the front row. Would you like to come up? Oh, two nice ladies in the front row. So we're going to talk about Alice and Baker now. She's not here, let's just talk about her. When the Redwood Empire Food Bank nominated volunteers, Alice and Baker and Tyler Moore, it was impossible just to pick one to say the Merritt Award, so we didn't. We chose both and now we chose three. Together they have quietly volunteered, now get this, over 3,500 hours. I mean, think about that. Alice typically starts her day by bagging produce, delivering the bags to the distribution sites. She also follows up by spending some time in the kitchen collective, preparing on the spot meals for seniors, children, and neighbors in the community. Whenever the food bank needs some helping hands, Alice is the first to step up and help. She approaches every assignment with a smile and encourages everyone around her. Alice has become a regular at a small senior complex in East Santa Rosa. It was there she met a disabled senior who she was able to help by delivering his food right to his door. After months of seeing each other, he and Alison became fast friends and he would greet her with a cup of coffee and her favorite cake. Alice and Tyler are compassionate, easygoing, and beloved volunteers. Thank you, Alison and Alison's stand ins and Tyler for your service in the fight to end hunger in our community. Our next recipient is Donna Prack. The parents of children attending the Cesar Chavez Language Academy or members of the West Side Little League have a saying that if you were convinced to do a service benefiting local children that you have been pracked. If not for Donna, the Cesar Chavez Language Academy Foundation would not be what it is today. She is a founding parent of CCLA. She was at the forefront of moving the school to a larger campus. Her unseen hard work and efforts made it possible for all the students at CCLA to enjoy and thrive at their school. She has created fun and exciting events, encouraging students to participate in their school community. For example, when CCLA gained a sixth grade level, she wanted the students to experience being part of an elementary school team. She found a coach and started a basketball team. A couple of years ago, Donna wanted the middle school students to have the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC during spring break. She helped families fundraise and in March, 2022, she led the Washington, DC trip with 40 middle schoolers, parents and teachers. Wow. Ha ha ha ha ha. Donna established the Sunshine Committee to celebrate the teachers sporadically during the year by baking treats or contacting local business to provide lunches for the staff. Additionally, each year she organizes a staff appreciation week and does something different each day, lunch, coffee and pastries, goodie bags or CCLA swag. Donna has also volunteered with Westside Little League for eight years as a sponsorship and fundraising coordinator. She has helped fundraise for new scoreboards, fences, a snack bar trailer and field maintenance upgrades. Donna is a type of person who will notice something that needs to be done and she will figure out a way to make it happen. Congratulations to Donna for her years of volunteer service. I'd like to invite Steve Rose to come up to the front. After 36 years in the restaurant business, Steve Rose refocused on helping people make healthy, sustainable food choices through his volunteer efforts. Steve taught culinary arts in Maria, Korea High School. He also created an online presence, The Organic Rose, a journey in green living and organic cooking, aired on several PBS stations, YouTube and Facebook. In the past six years, Steve has devoted countless volunteer hours, teaching culinary skills to Sonoma County 7th through 12th graders at the Chops Teen Club, which is a membership facility in Santa Rosa. The Chops facility is available to teens after school and on weekends. The 21,000 square foot facility includes a gym, rock wall, music studio, technology and a culinary arts program. Steve is considered a staff volunteer for Chops. At Chops, Steve volunteers weekly to teach seven to 10 teenagers valuable skills needed for a career in a commercial kitchen, including recipe development, cooking, knife skills and preparing farm to table meals. Steve is creating a lending library for recipe books for the teens to check out. In addition to weekly classes, the teens prepare food for fundraising events at Chops. Those events often require two to three days of preparation and wrap up duties. The goal is to get the teens job ready to work in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Congratulations Steve for teaching and inspiring Cindy of Santa Rosa's teens in the world of culinary opportunities. Elise, are you here? Yay! She had class tonight so that's why she's going last. Please welcome our final merit award recipient of the night, Elise Curtis to the front of the room. High schooler Elise Curtis has been volunteering and giving back to her community since she was eight when she first volunteered to help socialize guide dogs in training. In the past few years, she has volunteered hundreds of hours to the series community project where she is a delivery angel for the organization delivering healthy meals every Friday to those in need who live in Santa Rosa. She is one of 350 youth volunteers for series. She also makes encouraging cards for series clients. One of the most essential aspects Elise provides is a personal and positive connection to people going through difficult situations. Elise is also a volunteer and participant in Pepperwood preserves teen Nat program. Their conservation efforts help to conserve, protect, and enhance Santa Rosa's natural resources. She was a delegate for the American Red Cross Northern California Leadership Development Center Conference. Following the workshop, Elise gave community fire safety presentations to help ensure that residents are better prepared for the fire season in Santa Rosa. Her impact on people has inspired Elise to want to pursue an education and career in public health. She has interned at Kaiser, joined the Jewish Community Free Clinic Cedric Cohort in Santa Rosa, and is a Santa Rosa Teen Cedric Social Justice Cohort member. Elise loves being able to help her community and it believes everyone can make an impact in the community for the better. Congratulations Elise on being one of the 2023 Merit Award recipients. And to close out our night, I'd like to bring back our fearless leader, Carolina Spence. Well, wasn't it as good as we promised? I mean, really, no. I want to be sure and thank the councilmen for taking their time to be here tonight. We know that we use a lot of your time. And to the staff who have been terrific. We meet, we rehearse, we give each other bad time. It's, but it's all for the fun of this. And to our awardees, thank you for your volunteer service. May your volunteerism inspire others in our community. And thank you, my fellow Merit Award committee members for your service to this committee and to the event. We invite you to stick around, take pictures, use our backdrop flowers. It's all looks, you'll look fabulous. Big, good lighting, you know how important lighting is. And I want to thank you all for coming. We'll see you next year. Thank you again.