Montgomery Serves Awards 2013

Odessa Shannon

Born in Washington, DC, Odessa Shannon graduated from Smith College and began her life of public service as a teacher in Baltimore. As National Program Director at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she worked with state and local human rights agencies across the nation. After retiring from federal service, Ms. Shannon served as Special Assistant to County Executive Charles Gilchrist, Deputy Director of Family Resources, and Director of the Office of Human Rights from 1995 to 2008. She founded the county’s Human Rights Hall of Fame in 2001.
 
Odessa Shannon became Montgomery County’s first African American woman elected official when she was elected to the Board of Education in 1982. A member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Eastern Regional Director of Jack and Jill of America, she was one of the original directors of the National Political Congress of Black Women. Ms. Shannon has served on many community boards, including NAACP and Montgomery Housing Partnership.
 
Ms. Shannon’s life of service has been recognized with a number of prestigious awards, including Human Rights Hall of Fame, Hornbook Award for Outstanding Service to Education, MLK Humanitarian Award, and Women of Vision Award of the Commission for Women.
 
In presenting Odessa Shannon with the Roscoe R. Nix Distinguished Community Leadership Award, County Executive Ike Leggett noted: “Montgomery County would not be the just and caring community it is today without the leadership of Odessa Shannon. A human rights pioneer working alongside Roscoe Nix, Odessa helped shape the modern Montgomery County.”
   Click here for video.

Carol Trawick

Carol Trawick has devoted her time, talent, and treasure to serving others and promoting the arts.  When Carol Trawick and her husband Jim sold their successful information technology business in 2006, they established the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation with a mission to strengthen community organizations. The Foundation’s innovative TeamUp grant making strategy requires nonprofits to collaborate in serving middle school students. Ms. Trawick initiated and funds The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards.

Ms. Trawick has served as Board chair of numerous community organizations, including The Music Center at Strathmore, Bethesda Urban Partnership, B-CC Chamber of Commerce, B-CC Rotary Club, and Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District. For her commitment to corporate social responsibility, Ms. Trawick has received many honors, including  Washingtonian of the Year, the Community Foundation’s Philanthropist of the Year, Leadership Montgomery’s Outstanding Leader Award, Interfaith Works’ Humanitarian of the Year, and the Montgomery County Business Hall of Fame.   Click here for video.

Teresa Rios Wright

Teresa Rios Wright is the quintessential community connector. From a key position within the school system, she has been the heart and soul of a network of community organizations and government agencies dedicated to making Montgomery County one of the nation’s most immigrant-friendly communities.  Ms. Wright taught in Mexico and Illinois before she joined Montgomery County Public Schools in 1979. Since 1995, as a Parent Resource Teacher in MCPS’s Division of ESOL and Bilingual Programs, Ms. Wright has worked to ensure that immigrant families and their children in the Gaithersburg and Watkins Mill clusters have an opportunity to achieve success.

Ms. Wright has been honored with countless awards, including the Board of Education’s Distinguished Service to Public Education, Leadership Montgomery’s Outstanding Leader Award, the Montgomery County Collaboration Council’s Time Well Spent for Montgomery’s Children Award, and the League of Women Voters’ Lavinia Engle Award.   Click here for video.

Marcine D. Goodloe

Marcine Goodloe has been a leader in fire and rescue service for over 40 years.  Upon retiring, Mrs. Goodloe returned to serve as part of the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad and the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department.  Marcine serves as liaison with the Montgomery County Government, meets regularly with, and has testified before local, state and Congressional legislators.  She chaired the Recruitment & Retention Committee of the Maryland State Firemen’s Association (MSFA), was voted into the MSFA’s Hall of Fame, and was the first woman to be elected president of MSFA in its 90 year history.  In what is known to be the first of its kind, Marcine collectively bargained an agreement between a volunteer fire and rescue group and a governmental agency, providing benefits, protection, nominal fees, and more for the 1,800 volunteers who serve the County.   Click here for video.

Joyce B. Siegel

When Joyce Siegel moved to Montgomery County in 1962, she started the West Fernwood Civic Association.  The Association was about a mile from the historically poor Scotland community.  She saw that Scotland homes lacked running water, sewer and trash collection and were overcrowded.  Joyce became a member of Suburban Maryland Fair Housing and the League of Women Voters Housing Committee to address these housing issues.  She went to area churches, and talked to clergy and community members about Scotland’s living conditions.  It took almost 5 years to get Scotland 100 affordable homes.  Joyce helped organize a Citizen’s Human Relations Commission to work on equal access issues for minorities which was the catalyst for the County to establish the County Human Relations Commission.  Joyce was also a member and President of the Interfaith Housing Coalition and has served as co-founder and Board member of The Bernie Scholarship Awards Program.   Click here for video.

Youth Service - Alfredo Colina Iturralde

Alfredo Colina Iturralde is a senior at Gaithersburg High School.  Although Alfredo volunteers many places, he stands out from the crowd for his leadership skills.  He is the Founder and President of PODER, a group for Latino male students which provides academic support and works toward changing the image of Latino male students in the school.  Alfredo has also put in many hours trying to increase parent attendance with the “Padres y Alumnos Latinos en Accion (PALA) program, a school initiative to increase engagement with Latino parents.  He succeeds by calling parents late at night when they are home from work to secure their involvement in meetings.  Alfredo manages to get approximately 40 parents to attend these monthly meetings.  

Business - MedImunne

MedImmune teams volunteered countless hours to organizations such as Manna Food Center, Interfaith Works, and Neediest Kids.  They have even launched a paid volunteer leave program. Employees receive one full day of volunteer leave annually. By the end of 2012, employees had volunteered over 2,000 hours.  Aside from many ongoing efforts, what truly made last year exceptional for MedImmune was its 2012 signature program. As part of its commitment to patients and their communities, MedImmune created an innovative partnership with KaBOOM! and the Children’s Inn at NIH .  These organizations worked together for seven months to plan a playground build at the Children’s Inn.  Employees from all three organizations came together and assembled the playground in six hours. 

Community Individual - Robert Zagorski

Even working at two jobs Robert Zagorski managed to volunteer close to 750 hours with Lutheran Social Services Agency mentoring an Iraqi refugee family.  He worked tirelessly to help the family address their medical needs including scheduling and driving them to appointments, filling out insurance forms, and finding interpreters.  In addition, Robert registered the kids at school, bought school supplies, went to orientations, and visited teachers with the parents. Robert is also involved with Junior Achievement of Greater Washington. He taught over 15 classes teaching students to develop work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy skills.  In addition, Robert volunteers for The House of Ruth, Thrive DC, DC Central Kitchen, Capital Area Food Bank, Reading Circle, Earth Sangha, and Allies Mentor.

Community Group - Montgomery County (MD) Alumnae Chapter of ­­­Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

The Montgomery County Alumnae Chapter of ­­­Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has over 300 members devoted to community service including areas such as physical and metal health, and educational and economic development.  ­­­With a commitment to improving the quality of life of the community, MCAC provided countless services in 2012 that included developing programs for teens that create a positive self image and self esteem, promoting academic excellence and career readiness, and teaching Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention.  Delta Sigma Theta has also sponsored coat drives, food drives, and personal care items drives.  It conducted its' 2 nd Annual World AIDS Day Symposium to inform the public of this increasingly serious disease and other health consequences related to HIV/AIDS that continues to impact residents.