 Hello again folks. We're gonna get started very shortly. Please make your way to your seats, grab a refreshment We'll get started in just about a minute. Thank you. Good afternoon folks. We're gonna get started. Thank you for coming This is a very special and exciting event a nice opportunity to recognize our own team members and colleagues and peers Some who are here for a long time some who are on their way out and some who are being recognized for their great work This is our 44th annual Recognition event and we're gonna start by introducing Dr. Gaines our provost and acting president to present the K Bowen Awards Thanks so much. This is my first one. I missed it last year. I think it was on travel And as I'm thinking about all the people there in this room who've given such service To this university. I'm looking at Deb It was one of the first people I met and I'm just so happy that I can be here with you as well Deb as as we say Not a final goodbye because you live across the street. So but anyway, welcome everyone, I'm really excited to be here and We're so pleased to be celebrating our outstanding employees. So today I have the distinct pleasure of presenting our 2024 Bowen Award to three amazing recipients along with recognizing Employees who have reached a milestone year and have combined 780 years of service to which university. That's crazy. That is wonderful We will also celebrate the 2023 and 2024 retirees Who have selflessly served Norwich University for a combined of total years of 326 years of service So we will also take a moment to celebrate our attirees from 2019 through 2022 that we were unable to celebrate in person. So they're here as well So I want to take a moment and speak about the K Bowen and K Bowen and the award And I learned a lot as I was going through my notes because I didn't know a lot about it And I asked a lot of questions. So each year three Norwich University employees are awarded the Kathleen Bowen staff recognition award And well anyone else who has previously been a Bowen award winner, please stand up We can give them a round of applause Thank you So Kathleen K. Bowen was a Norwich employee who worked in student life for 35 years She lived on campus in Woodbury Hall until her death in June of 1990 her passing was a huge loss to the university faculty and staff and those students who saw her as a mother and Grandmother and mentor away from home Outstanding individuals bring to their jobs the spirit and characteristics epitomized by K Bowen Examples of K's characteristics included kindness being a team player effectiveness efficiencies Going above and beyond a dedicating herself to Norwich University and their department respectful trustworthy accountable for their actions excellent customer service Participants in the NU community and Representatives of Norwich in a professional and appropriate manner We have had 33 nominations for 15 different individuals including one Prior recipient. So I just really want to give everybody a round of applause who was nominated Because it just shows how much we appreciate you and that you're appreciated every day for the job that you do Okay, so I'm gonna present these awards individually So as I call your name if you could come up so I can give you the award and we'll pose for a picture And then I'll say a little bit about you So for administrative support group Shelly Lindler Lindler going to that's fantastic All right, so Shelly's gonna stay here and then But here's a few words about Shelly Shelly Lindler never works she serves She cares deeply for the students. She serves and goes above and beyond to support them She is kind and caring towards core co-workers and always willing to help others with any and all tasks Shelly has led the holiday serving of meals to the student body for our cadre and is happiest when serving others She has gone above and beyond for students time and time again even getting up early to help motivate students through their fitness tests She understands and connects with cadets on all levels not reachable by the professional cadre She's the first smile or caring voice people see as they come through the door and the difference she makes is immeasurable All right, next up is Manager senior professional and administrative professional group ready Rija Ramahatra I know Rija and I love them I've worked with them now for a couple of years and absolute fantastic individual So Rija Ramahatra is one of the kindest and hardest working individuals He is constantly striving for perfection in his own work and lifting up colleagues So they can make more easily succeed in their own tasks What makes Rija stand out as a nominee for the Bowen award is not that he exemplifies one or two of the attributes noted as being characteristic of Kay Bowen But that he exemplifies them all with both grace and integrity He is tenacious in his dedication to the university both as a long-standing employee and As a member of the immediate and extended Norwich community his professionalism and accountability in particular Ensure that the faculty and staff with whom he works are well supported and that the students in his programs will receive the very best experience possible Rija is the commensurate team member and embraces his work with enthusiasm professionalism and respect for all all right one more round of applause for our next awardee for service group and Melissa Godin Forgotten. I hope I didn't say Melissa. Are you here today? Oh There we go. All right. I think we stunned Melissa. There we go Of course. All right, so now I'm gonna say a few wonderful things about Melissa Melissa is a very hard worker and is always willing to willing to listen and motivate others She willingly volunteers for everything and does it all with a smile One of Melissa's most endearing qualities is how often she goes above and beyond for her team's holidays as well as Rewarding those around her for their accomplishments She recently cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal for our international students who are not able to go home for the holiday She is a true example of someone who is an incredibly hard worker But more importantly someone who shows everyone around her that they are valuable and cared for So let's give one last round of applause for Melissa. Greg's coming back to MC. All right. Okay Well, now you've heard my name I'm Greg McGrath and the assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students on year 19 of a one-year plan at Norwich How about one more round of applause for all three of our k-bow and award winners? I'm excited now to move us on to recognizing a whole bunch more folks a lot more folks And so on this occasion we want to acknowledge those employees who've completed a degree Completed a degree in the past year. So anybody who's completed a degree in the last year Would you please stand to be recognized? I'm not seeing anybody stand. Are we being bashful and shy? All right. How about everybody in the back of the room just got conferred an honorary doctoral degree? Congratulations pause for applause. Oh, I'm sorry. That's that's not to be read Moving on to milestones We want to honor our employees with milestone years of service i.e. 510 and so on it gets pretty high We have a few folks here who are on the top of that list at one point Tony Mariano and others. Hi, Tony. Hi, Gail When your name is called please come to the stage for a group photo I'm going to ask folks to hold your applause. I'm going to do them in groups of five then ten We're going to stand with Provost Gaines and have a photo taken so without further ado our five-year honorees After that further ado our five-year honorees All right. All right our own Dane Abernathy Crystal Almond Jess Amell Mark Atwood Provost Gaines really Patrick Beeson Corey Bennett Maureen Bradley Natalie Cartwright Jennifer Cornoyer coach Coach Christopher Delmas Sophie Daugherty Professor Chantel Eccos Matthew Fisher Rami Fuller Jean Sebastian Gagnon Sarah Galant John Gartner Sadie Hale. Hi Sadie Sadie works in student affairs with us. I'm not sure if Sadie's here Anne Harvey Steven Herodic Benjamin Hulbert Zachary Jackman Baker David Kisner Mark Cole Justin Custer And we're still going folks. There's a lot here under the five years Joseph LaValley Heather LeBlanc Kristen Martin Ann McClucky Paul Milne Taylor Nash Michael Orris David Sem Haleen Sisti My dear friend Seth Soman Ann Summers Cindy Souter who's here with us today. Yay Cindy Amy Welch And Cassandra Wills Our five-year honorees All right surprisingly the list doesn't get that much shorter that quickly so our 10-year recognize Nadia Al-Abadi Paul Apollo Elizabeth Adams Henry Collier James Dalton Greg Jankitis Miri Kim Michelle Leslie Min Lee Paul Morgan Linda Rastep Amy Roger Christopher Sandin Bethany Scalzo Mark Stefani Jennifer Tozzi And Teresa Zimmerman 10-year recognize. All right congratulations and thank you to our 10-year honorees and 15 years Thomas Carter Tammy Fontaine Holly Gaudette Steve Grindel Bill or Billy or ball as I usually typo email him Bill Nash Molyver Megan Oliver Officer Andy Starzik And coach Mark Zacker 15 years All right I joked before folks but it is getting a little shorter but it's still impressive the number of years and the number of folks who've been here for all of these years so Thank you to those who are honored for 15 and here are our 20-year honorees Sherry Campbell All right Sherry Kristen Dodge Kristen Milka Jokic Tony Raftery Fianna Verrett And those are our 20-year folks. Congratulations and thank you. All right. Thank you to our 20-year honorees I'll see you next year Our 25-year honorees Fadilla Numanovic Scott Page And Robert Pudiac Now it's my privilege to say we're getting up there With my colleague and friend at 30 years The next two 30 and 35 years student affairs are dominating these categories right now Colonel Bill Pasalacqua Congratulations and thank you Many years of service including one special year as the regimental commander of the Corps of Cadets 35 year honoree This person goes without introduction and by one name only three letters any guesses Rev Bill Wick ladies and gentlemen All right. Just to honor very especially this next person we're going to skip 40 years We have no 40-year honorees and jump right to 45 Now I once played on a softball field in Montpelier against this person and uh I don't know if you've been working at Norwich Ronnie Spalding for 45 years. I think it's time to retire softball Ronnie Spalding 45 years at Norwich University All right folks for Ronnie and everybody how about one last round of applause and thanks for their service At this point. We want to honor some of our retirees from our 2023 2024 retirees. We have 16 folks to recognize Who have selflessly served Norwich University? for a combined total of 326 Years So i'm going to ask that we hold our applause and ask our retirees to come up the stage to meet with dr. Gaines And we'll offer our applause at the end You're having a meeting with pro both games solve all of the problems All of the things terry bell rick bergen Dan carol I've seen dan try to leave a few times and i'm seeing you again patty ferrera kim healy connie hopper If you've ever emailed connie, you know, she goes by chopper Sheila jones Jane lane Papa, I mean alan lane mark parker michael prairie larry rooney kyle southworth Norm st. Ange david ward deb wick And mike. Yes, alonia One alibi. He's already coming Bill clements. I'm so sorry bill It's just white out all over the paper. I don't I'm sorry in following our 2023 2024 retirees We'd like to take a moment now To celebrate our retirees who were unable to celebrate in person. So if you are a retiree from 2019 through 2022 Please join us in front of the stage with dr. Gaines And thank you for your service to norwich university and I know some of you are out there I'm looking for you to come on up Smile For our k-bow and winners our retirees our honorees Before we go I would be remiss if I didn't share some thanks and there's quite a bit So please bear with me a lot of folks put a lot into making this event happen and offer the opportunity for recognition So would our k-bowen award excuse me committee members, please stand so past recipients of the k-bowen award Then go on to serve as the selection team for this year. Who are our folks in the audience? We've got bill wick. Thank you for coordinating sherry cambell Anyone that i'm missing that's in the room Anna van luvender and ronnie spalding. All right very good Thank you folks And if it weren't for the microphones and the lights and the teams behind all of that We wouldn't be here. So thank you to our facilities operations team Way in the back room in the nickelson room back there. Thank you. All right And our sedexo team. Thank you very much for the catering And then a very special thank you to our human resources team the entire team and specifically the employee recognition team of laura croppley and sarah quincey. Thank you Before I say this concludes our event Please take advantage of behind behind dr. Kelly and gale mariano on the back We've got some snacks and refreshments and please take a look at the gold star board There are gold stars for some of you if it's yours, please take it But read them. Thanks for all that you do. Thanks for being here and that concludes our ceremony