City to Recognize Volunteers

City volunteers will be honored and winners of four Viola Blythe Awards will be named Wednesday night at the 26th annual City of Newark Volunteer Recognition Ceremony. The event will take place starting at 6 p.m. at the Grand Ballroom.

The Viola Blythe awards are named for Viola Blythe, a woman who voluntarily helped homeless and helpless Tri-City men, women and children for 50 years, according to the website. She died in 2002 at the age of 85.

Four Viola Blythe Awards will be presented: the Group Award, Senior Award, Youth Award and the Viola Blythe Volunteer of the Year Award.

Nominees were selected by a selection committee made up of representatives from Fremont, Union City and Hayward.

This year's nominees are as follows:

Viola Blythe Group Award: 

• Cargill Cares: A group made up of Cargill employees who have donated their time and efforts in community. They have adopted three families for the holidays, donated more than 1,800 pounds of food and volunteered at various schools in Newark and Fremont.
• Graham School Climate Committee: Four teachers make up this team of volunteers—Lauretta McCarthy, Stephen Moresi, Arlene Paxton and Erika Zandona. Their mission is to create good citizens by educating their students by highlighting a character trait per month. They students, in turn, have raised donations that have benefitted families and seniors in need.
• The Newark Rotary Club: The club has served Newark for 50 years and has provided donations and services for humanitarian projects, as well as community and individual needs. The club also oversees the Newark High School Rotary Interact Club, an organization of about 100 students that also assists the community.
• The Newark Teen Advisory Group:  This organization volunteers with the Newark Library and advises the Teen Library Assistant on the library's young adult programs and on collection development and non-required reading lists.

Viola Blythe Senior Award: 

• Stan Deeds: A volunteer at St. Edward's Catholic Church, Deeds has acted as a sacristan and assists with funerals and other parish services, serves with the St. Vincent de Paul Society and provides transportation for staff and people in need. He also volunteers with the League of Volunteers.
• Steve Francis: He has volunteered as a National Little League coach, a Newark Memorial High School Booster Club member and Farmer and Farmarettes member. He has also volunteers at the Viola Blythe Community Service Center.
• Carol Hewitt: Hewitt volunteers with senior services at the Silliman Activity and Family Aquatic Center, providing support to run senior programs. She helps weekly with the bingo program, serves as Sunshine senior—where she buys, writes and sends out greeting cards—and has organized rummage sales. She is also a member of the Senior Advisory Committee.
• Jean Schellenberg: As a volunteer with the "Senior in Schools" program, Schellenberg reads one-on-one with second grade students who are English-learners. She plays a key role in students' phonics and keeps notes on the students' strengths and weaknesses so they are up to date on what progress is needed.

Viola Blythe Youth Award: 

• Preston Liu: He started volunteering with a local restaurant after he noticed a holiday collection barrel filled with food and toys. Liu prepared a flier and got local stores to donate food. Afterward, he joined the Viola Blythe Community Service Center, where he helps sort hundreds of canned foods.
• Victor Verdugo: As a volunteer with the Newark Library, Verdugo began Summer Reading Buddies, a program that assists students from preschool to grade 4 to improve their reading skills by reading with teens. He is a member of the library's Teen Advisory Group and has helped with the Tri-Cities Food Drive.

Viola Blythe Volunteer of the Year Award:

• Len Ferrier and Dawn Onalfo: This married team are no strangers to volunteering. They have volunteered with the Newark Days Celebration and are Parking Committee chairs. They enlisted high school students to act as parking attendants and manage them during the Newark Days festival.
• Keith Hayes: As a volunteer with the Newark Memorial High School library, Hayes assists with book repairs, placing books back on shelves, and clerical work. He also created a list of book titles of classic novels that teachers use to increase literacy of students. 
• Tim Jones: For the past 18 years, Jones has been a volunteer with the City of Newark's Graffiti Abatement Team. He coordinates the group, fixes equipment, checks supplies, maintains accurate records and communicates with the team manager. He also volunteers during the Newark Days festival to ensure the parade route and Community Center are free from graffiti. 
• Carol Quinn: A volunteer with the Viola Blythe Community Service Center, Quinn repacks food products for distribution, sorts through canned goods, stocks the pantry and prepares emergency food boxes. She acts as a guide for the Sunol Regional Wilderness Park and volunteers with at Adobe, where she tutors homeless children. She helps cook monthly at Sunrise Village  and reads at the Fremont Public Library. She also assists the Viola Blythe Center with clerical work.