September 2017 Staff Above & Beyond

Congratulations to all!  The winners for the drawing for this month are Donna Burch, Sheri Horsley, Donna Proffitt, Denny Moell and Beth Crawford.  Child Focus nominated for the September Staff Above and Beyond Awards include: 

Jamie DeMaris, Betsy Weiss, Michelle Pendergrass, Brittany Morgan and Bethany Lapp: All of these ladies jump in to lend a hand without hesitation when needed to complete Williamsburg Orientations/files. This was a huge help to getting the “Burg” classrooms up and running and was greatly appreciated! 

Alex Lopez: Alex has a family that has some issues with their health insurance and a medical bill that they received. She spent extra time with the family helping them to make phone calls and get things figured out.  I am so glad we have people like Alex who can take time out of their busy schedules to help these families. Thank you Alex! 

Vicki Holthaus: Vicki goes beyond her job description to insure the best outcomes for children. Recently a former student at Felicity did not show up for summer school or to finish his enrollment for Kindergarten. The schools came to talk to the Head Start staff to find out about how to contact the family because their phone numbers where not working. Even though he was no longer a part of our Head Start program, Vicki volunteered herself to drive to the family home and tell them that the school was trying to contact them and that they needed to register their child before Kindergarten started in a few days.  Thanks, Vicki! 

Janelle Brock, Cindy Jamison, Kasie Smith, Donna Burch, Chelsea Kaylor, and Stephanie Jamison: These staff members stepped up and did orientations, sought enrollments, and completed all the bus paperwork needed for the Williamsburg transportation department to make sure all the children would start the next day. Thank you so much! 

Sherri Horsley: Sherri’s incredibly positive attitude and “can do” approach to filling in for her teacher that is out on medical leave is so appreciated, especially getting the classroom ready and completing all of the educational home visits.  Thanks, Sherri! 

Karen Stone: Where do I start? Karen has revamped 3 of 6 classrooms with a combination of new teachers, assistants and aides, got a new duration room up and running, dealt with few staff absences, interviewed and hired, on boarded new staff and all in an effort to get the year off to a smooth start. I would say she succeeded!  Thanks, Karen! 

Bersy Tudor: Bersy did an incredible job of enrollment at the start of the year and handled all that it entails effortlessly, even though it is her first start of the year as ERSEA Manager, she has risen to the challenge! Thanks, Bersy! 

Jamie DeMaris: Jamie has gone above and beyond in helping me get acclimated since I started in early August. She has answered all my questions, shared resources and tips/hints, and listened to all my “whining” as I navigate the new position. I am SO thankful to have her in the office! 

Ginny Mersman and Nancy Blair: I wanted to do a huge shout out to Ginny and Nancy on all the licensing changes this year. They did an awesome job getting all the paperwork submitted, meeting inspectors for occupancy and fire, gathering information for schools and getting into the building, setting up classrooms, hanging all the correct documents, moving furniture, sweet talking some custodians, jumping through  hoops for Kim and gathering materials from everywhere and coordinating whit everyone involved. We are lucky to have two of the best at getting our centers licensed and moved around! 

Donna Proffitt: I would like to nominate Donna Proffitt for helping to pull 60-80 invoices for Child Focus’ upcoming IV-E Audit. While the auditors were here during the 3rd week of September for the financial audit, they had requested invoices to be pulled for their upcoming November visit. The request came in with no time in advance and had to be fulfilled within several hours before the end of the work day. With no questions asked, Donna stepped up to the plate to help with this task, as I had to attend to the demands of the on-going September financial audit. Thank you, Donna, for going Above & Beyond! 

Denny Moell: Denny Moell came in one morning, put his belongings down, and walked into the kitchen on the 551B side. Less than a minute later, he came back down the hallway with a handful of paper towels and dragging the large kitchen trash can. He dragged the trash can out the door and to the far side of the parking lot, where someone had dumped a large pile of trash. He used the paper towels to protect his hands as he picked up all of the trash.  He then pulled the can back into the kitchen and carried on with the rest of his day. I’ve watched many people walk right over small pieces of trash without picking them up. Thank you, Denny, for caring about all aspects of the agency, including physical appearance of the parking lot and taking the time and initiative to do something about it! 

Beth Crawford: I would like to give an Above and Beyond nomination to Beth Crawford.  Beth works tirelessly to help school based staff get their prevention referrals taken care of and registered. She displays great patience with clients and their families who call in the agency and are in a crisis. Beth goes Above and Beyond to support our regional coordinators in any way she can. She will even make sure they eat their lunch, often helping with ordering the food and turning off car lights when the staff is forgetful.