“...All of us in the Transportation Program look forward to this luncheon because it gives us the opportunity to personally thank our volunteer drivers for everything you’ve done the past year and also to recognize those drivers celebrating milestone anniversaries with the program.  I know that most of you don’t expect any thanks for what you do, but it’s important to Senior Services to be able to let you know how much you mean to our program’s success. 

People in the community are amazed not only when I tell them how many drivers we have volunteering for our program – we have 826 drivers on the books including volunteer drivers with our community partners – but people are also amazed how long our volunteers stay with the program.  Today we will be recognizing drivers celebrating five years with our program, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and one driver who has been driving with us for thirty years!”

Although not all of them were able to attend the luncheon, we'd like to congratulate the following volunteer drivers for reaching milestone anniversaries in 2014:

• 5-year drivers: Nancy Gerard, Bob Roby, Sean Ward, Thomas Morio, Calvin Wang, Steve DeHaven, Donald Campbell, Fred Johnson, Meg Swimelar, Michael Schmidt, James Owen, Scott Eliason, Doris Jones, Rick Rice, Joyce Rice, Sara Croft, Claudia Sewell, Ronald Vandenberg, Carol Godding, Mary Ann Quinn, Susan Heffernan, Michael Lofstedt, Grant Colyer, Monique Ming Laven, Phil Coulson
• 10-year drivers: Diana Kordus, Margie Pasero, Richard Nikolaisen, Lynne McCaslin, Push Patel, Mary Paulson, Shaila Gadre, Joe Merrill, Ruth Mynar, Maria Joao Galvao, John Davis
• Douglas Matthews
• 15-year drivers: Tom Brown, Patsy Giboney, Bob Knudson
• 20-year driver: Dwight Binge
• 25-year drivers: Al Hillstrom, Kathe Kern, Jack Langlais
• 30-year driver: Deeon Kuspert (MORE ABOUT DEEON WILL BE FEATURED IN AN UPCOMING BLOG POST.  Be on the lookout for it next week!)

5-year drivers as they receive their Frango Chocolates

10-year drivers as they receive their certificates and Godiva chocolates*

15-year driver and "Shining Star" recipient, Patsy Giboney, with Senior Services' CEO, Paula Houston*

25-year drivers as they listen to Cindy's stories about their years of service and receive engraved Barone Crystal gifts*



The sun even came out to honor our volunteers and provide them with this spectacular view of Seattle off in the distance!

Cindy concluded her remarks with the following statement, "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said:  'Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.'

And so all of us at Senior Services are grateful to be here today to thank you for your service to our agency, our clients and our community, for your grace and love in action.”

Let us remember these inspiring words throughout the year and keep them with us until next year's luncheon!

*Photo credit: Bryan Ilyankoff