April 13, 2006

Unsung heroes feted at 11th annual Santa Clara
County Parks volunteer recognition banquet

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Santa Clara County Parks recently recognized the unsung heroes who preserve our regional parklands. They are the volunteers who selfishly donate their time to care for the 27 parks on nearly 45,000 acres.

Back to volunteering at the Quicksilver Museum. Left: Kitty Monahan, Mike Boulland, park interpreters Terri Sansilo-Williams and John Dorrance. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

The 11th annual volunteer recognition banquet was held at Santa Teresa Golf Club and the attendees represented a who’s who of the keepers of Santa Clara County Parks [SCCP] all in attendance to honor the 2006 volunteers.

“Our dedicated volunteers truly assist our department in providing a quality experience for park visitors,” said Parks Volunteer Coordinator Heidi McFarland. “Our awards banquet is our special way of recognizing our volunteers that have gone above and beyond to help make our parks a better place for everyone to enjoy.

“Trail crew members help keep our trails maintained, docents assist with many of our interpretive and outdoor recreation programs, camp hosts help keep our campgrounds clean and safe and trail watch volunteers serve as extra eyes for the park,” added McFarland. “We couldn’t possibly do the work without them.”

Junior awards
A tie for the Junior Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Michelle Mai and Madeline Davis. Mai volunteered all over the county at most of the monthly park clean-ups and trail days from Joseph D. Grant to Chitactac and devoted nearly every weekend to the improvement of parks and trails.

Davis worked at Santa Teresa Park where she cares for the trails and helps with the flower garden and chickens at Joice Bernal Ranch. She is also active in the 4H group that has adopted the park and even helped with the dedication of the mounted unit facility at Santa Teresa preparing tables and food.

The winner of the Junior Volunteer Group of the Year was awarded to Fisher Middle School, who adopted the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Led by Vicki and Steffan Hack with this year’s newest parent leader Sue Ryan, the group kept the park and paved trail beautiful and clean. The dedicated group also did numerous projects from weeding to litter pickup.

Hourly awards
SCCP volunteer hours are cumulative and receive pins and gifts for their tireless efforts. There are 4,000 active volunteers of which 1,750 assisted in 2005. McFarland presented 50-hour, 100-hour and 250-hour awards.

Five hundred hours or more volunteers were Marilyn Comstock, Donna Gillette, Mike Flaugher, Nancy Mapes, Janice Frazier and Carla Satra. Carolyn Tucker, Eric Watson and David Wright, who each contributed more than 1,000 hours of service.

Kitty Monahan is all smiles receiving her 6,500 hour award from Parks Volunteer Coordinator Heidi McFarland. Photo courtesy of Mike Boulland

Mario Blaum, Adele Boydston, Mari Thomen and Barry Redding were awarded for over 1,500 hours of service. Craig Randall and Jack Signorella’s cumulative hours were over 2,000 hours. John Drew and Marilyn Orlando completed over 2,500 hours. Chere Barger and Niles Garret have contributed over 3,000 hours.

Art Boudreault, Mike Boulland and Roy Ichinaga were awarded for over 3,500 hours of service. Boudreault is the archivist and docent at the New Almaden Quicksilver Museum. Boulland is also a docent and is president of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park.

“The neat thing about volunteering is that you see 3- and 5-year-olds with their plastic rakes helping to clean up the parks,” said Boulland. “Now, they’re grown up and in college and still come out to help.”

Kitty Monahan and Dean Thames clocked in with over 6,500 hours of service.

Monahan was instrumental in creating the volunteer program, which is in effect today. She serves as president of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association where she organizes volunteers who docent at the Museum, serves on the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Commission and is known for her fervent activism in saving open space for future generations. But you’ll also see her cleaning up trails all over the county. She is currently involved in Yes on Parks, a charter fund that allows the county to set aside money collected from property tax revenue to develop, acquire and operate county parks that will be on the June ballot.

Volunteer of the year
Dean Thames was awarded Volunteer of the Year donating almost 7,000 hours over the past 10 years. He volunteers as a range safety officer at Field Sport Park where he observes the rifle and pistol firing line for safety issues. He is a certified pistol and rifle instructor and has taught many new shooters at the park.

Volunteer group of the year
Grant Park Rose Garden Group was the winner of the Volunteer Group of the Year. They spent many hours planning, designing and caring for the roses, building an irrigation system and trellis as well as planting flowers.

Park liaison of the year
Bernal-Gulnac-Joyce Ranch park interpreter John Dorrance was the recipient of the Park Liaison of the Year Award. Dorrance has created programs and worked with volunteers to produce an educational video and interpretive programs as well as maintaining the garden and chicken coop. He has enthusiastically worked with several West Valley College students to produce additional projects.

Volunteer coordinating council award
Kitty Monahan presented the award to John Atwood and Jeanne Carevic. Atwood spends six hours every month helping at the New Almaden Quicksilver Museum and sharing his surveying work at the mine tunnels. He has scanned all the newspaper articles from 1892 to 2005 so they can be archived at the museum. He also meets with the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association every month helping archive and plan. And he always works for the annual Pioneer Day celebration.

Carevic has prepared the Native American history for the Almaden Quicksilver and Chitactac Adams site. She is a docent at the New Almaden Quicksilver Museum. She is also involved with Pioneer Day and a member of the board of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association assisting with archives and planning and providing Eagle Projects to be completed.

Corporate volunteer partnership award
R.E.I. stores were awarded for the help with numerous park projects totaling over 1,000 hours of work. Some of them are cleanup efforts at Summit Rock at Sanborn Park and work on the Tony Look Trail at Stevens Creek Park—which they have adopted.

Director’s award
SCCP Department Director Lisa Killough presented the Director’s Award to Friends of Metcalf. With over 1,300 hours of volunteer time, the group has kept the motorcycle park running at peak performance, maintaining trails and use areas nearly every week. Alex Seyedi is the driving force for the Friends of Metcalf visiting at least three days a week. He has created the groups website and coordinates the workdays as well as an ambassador to the sport.

Volunteering
SCCP has volunteering opportunities to fit everyone’s schedule. There are monthly trail days the first Saturday of each month a various parks. Cleanup days are scheduled the second Sunday of the month. And then there are the monthly volunteering projects the third Saturday of the month. There are adopt-a-trail, camp hosts, docent positions and park friends groups. A host of seasonal activities are always planned. The next big event is Earth Day, April 22, with events planned for Ed Levin Park, Sanborn Park, New Almaden Quicksilver Park and Vasona Lake Park.

For more information on volunteering for SCCP visit www.sccgov.org or call (408) 355-2254.