OneStar Foundation: Texas Center for Social Impact is proud to announce the winners of the 2009 Governor’s Volunteer Awards. The winners are:
•    Social Innovator Award: Diane Flores, The Learning Zone, East Arlington Branch Library. Ms. Flores’ work as an AmeriCorps* VISTA member at an after-school tutoring program has transformed her community by addressing the challenges of literacy faced by both children and adults.
•    Corporate Community Impact Award: Texas Instruments Inc. Texas Instruments offers several volunteer and educational programs that improve the quality of life for its employees, neighbors and communities.
•    Community Collaborator Award, Individual/Group: Don Strange, Don Strange of Texas, Inc. For years, the late Don Strange and his catering company have been leveraging connections and partnerships to help them assist children in crisis.
•    Community Collaborator Award, Organization: A Circle of Ten, Inc. – Network for Collaboration. A Circle of Ten is a collaboration of professionals willing to go above and beyond to foster healthy collaborations that improve the quality of life in east Texas .
•    Public Innovator Award: Beth Wick, 2-1-1 Texas Information and Referral Network. Mrs. Wick’s leadership and vision has brought the public and private sectors together to support 2-1-1 Texas , a program that connects millions of Texans to information on critical social services.
•    Community Motivator Award: Lana Duke . A former foster child, Lana Duke now helps others with similar backgrounds learn to believe in themselves while inspiring others to get involved and make a difference in children’s lives.
•    Community Motivator Award: Vikki J. Martin, Ferguson Road Initiative. Ms. Martin founded the Ferguson Road Initiative (FRI), a nonprofit that now includes over 20 neighborhood associations that work together to fight crime and clean up large blighted areas of Dallas .
•    First Lady’s Rising Star Award: Jordan Kilkenny. At age 16, Ms. Kilkenny has already made a tremendous positive impact on her community, including volunteering over 300 hours at several community nonprofits since 2006.
•    Governor’s Lonestar Award: Charles R. Bauer, MD, CPE. Dr. Bauer’s years of work in disaster planning and response has led to countless lives being saved, and has ensured a much safer future for generations of Texans to come.
The annual Governor's Volunteer Awards honors Texans who give their time and talents to their communities through volunteerism and community service. For 26 years, the Governor's Volunteer Awards have honored some of Texas ' most dedicated community volunteers. These awards allow Governor Rick Perry to recognize some of the individuals, organizations, corporations and public entities that truly embody the Texas tradition of community service. Anita Perry, First Lady of Texas, will speak at the awards ceremony, recognizing the winners and addressing those gathered to celebrate with them.
“The individuals, organizations, corporations and public entities honored through the 2009 Governor’s Volunteer Awards have truly gone above and beyond to help their fellow Texans in times of need,” said Elizabeth M. Darling, President and CEO of OneStar Foundation. “They are stellar examples of the good that can be found in all of us when we become engaged in solutions to social challenges.”
Texas has thousands of nonprofits. Each has a different mission, but all are working toward the same goal: helping to improve the lives of Texans. OneStar supports the nonprofit sector and its stakeholders through initiatives that increase civic engagement, research, rigorous evaluation and nonprofit organizational excellence. The goal is to achieve sustainable social impact throughout the larger nonprofit infrastructure. We come from many groups; and together, we are stronger, more dynamic and more effective in achieving impact on the social challenges of our Texas communities.
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