Volunteers of the Year were judged by a group of community leaders. Each recipient received an award plaque recognizing him/her in the particular category.

Seventy-nine individuals or groups were nominated by 34 area nonprofits.

Individual Award

Mary Lou Chambers

Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill

For 13 years, Mary Lou has been a wonderful asset to the Ronald McDonald House. Serving over 1,500 hours, she has helped with special events to raise money for the House, has trained new volunteers, has served on the Volunteer Committee to help shape the program and services offered, and has been a consistent weekly volunteer. Mary Lou has given her heart and time to make the House the best it can be.

Youth Award

Skylar Crabtree

Duke Hospital Auxiliary

Skylar is always willing to do anything that is asked of her. She guides new volunteers through every step and teaches them the importance of volunteering. Playing a vital role in making one sick child’s final wish of participating in an Easter Egg Hunt come true, Skylar and others created an egg hunt in the child’s room and in the hallway. The child was returned to his bed where he was thrilled to find the Easter eggs.

Family Award

Linda and Richard Clark

Paws4Ever ReSale Store

The Clarks have been involved with Paws4Ever since the late 1970s, long before it had its current identity and location. Their dedication makes them an invaluable asset to the organization. They are the quietly diligent and an ever-present consistent support. They take on the day to day “chores” at the Paws4Ever ReSale Store and step up when there is an unexpected need. The ReSale Store could not operate without tremendous volunteer support.

Senior Award

Alison O’Reilly

Achievement Academy of Durham

As a former educator, Alison brings very special academic skills to her volunteer work as a reading tutor for high-risk young adults at the Achievement Academy of Durham. Her reliability, dependability and flexibility are assets to the organization and set a good example for her students. In the past year, Alison has been a key volunteer in assisting 16 struggling readers improve their reading proficiency to a high school level.

Group/Team Award

EMC Electrical Engineering Citizen Schools Apprenticeship

Citizen Schools North Carolina

Leading and influencing our students via projects and hands-on STEM education, the apprenticeship team designs their own high-quality apprenticeship curriculum and updates it each semester. They developing meaningful relationships with the students. What makes the EMC volunteers so special is the quality of planning they put into their apprenticeship, their attention to our students’ needs and learning styles, their dependability and sustained participation, and the commitment they give to ensure the students have an incredible experience in the apprenticeship.

Perseverance in Volunteering Award

Randy Askew

Duke University Medical Center, Duke Cancer Institute

As a hospitality cart volunteer, Randy takes the time to listen to patients and really hears what they have to say. He is also responsible for training all new volunteers who enter oncology inpatient services. He easily develops relationships with staff, patients, caregivers, and volunteers. He is honest, dependable, and demonstrates integrity. This year, he had the highest number of volunteer hours.

Outstanding Mentor Award

Daniel Toth

Augustine Literacy Project

For 10 consecutive years, Dan has dedicated more than 4,000 hours of service to serving low-income, struggling readers in grades K-12. He has tutored at least 27 children, each a minimum of 60 hours in six schools. Completing two 70 hour tutor training courses, he returns to every Augustine training to demonstrate a matching game he created to help his students learn to read, spell and understand words. His love for his students inspires and invigorates each new class of tutor trainees.

Faith-Based Award

Yates Baptist Sonshine Leadership Team

Yates Baptist Church

This leadership team has served Yates Baptist for the past 24 years. They help to enhance the spiritual development of special needs adults. Each Wednesday night this team effectively demonstrates to these special adults that they have their own gifts and talents to share with the church and community at large. The team leads the class in a CROP Walk each year, raising money to stamp out hunger. The church appreciates these qualities and embraces this ministry. It is truly a ministry of love.

Corporate/Business Volunteerism Award

GSK Orange Team

Caring House

Since 9/11, GSK has been a national sponsor of the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. GSK encourages its employees to unite in a spirit of volunteerism during the month of September and organized an Orange Day event in Durham. The GSK team worked on several projects at Caring House, including cleaning the kitchen, washing the patio, maintaining the grounds and garden, shampooing carpets and cleaning the koi pond which they installed in 2010.

Paid Director of Volunteers Award

Carolyn Colsher

Duke HomeCare & Hospice

Carolyn is diligent in finding volunteer opportunities for every group and takes her work very seriously. She created “Care Shawls” as a way of giving back to patients. Patients are often overwhelmed that someone would take the time to make the shawls, something that brings so much comfort. Carolyn also developed the Care Blanket program to provide warm fleece blankets to young children of hospice patients which provides children with a sense of reassurance. Because of Carolyn’s dedication, patience and commitment to recruit and train volunteers, the number of volunteer hours has increased from 3,000 to 7,800 since 2002.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Perry Colwell

Executive Service Corps of the Triangle

As a consultant, supervisor, trainer, intake manager and extraordinary board member, Perry’s ability to analyze the unique challenge that a nonprofit faces is legend. Dedicating more than 20 years of service, Perry has volunteered as a consultant with more than 160 nonprofit organizations in the greater Triangle area, serving areas from arts and education to senior citizens, the environment, women and health to animal welfare and youth.

Community Spirit Award

Dr. Barbara Newborg

Dr. Barbara Newborg attended Swarthmore College and graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School. During her Swarthmore years Newborg had the good fortune to become acquainted with Dr. Walther Kempner, a cell physiologist, with a research position in the Department of Medicine at Duke’s new Medical School. Upon graduation, Newborg moved to Durham and ultimately became Kempner’s chief medical associate for 40 years. The treatments they proposed for their patients eventually morphed into the well-known Duke Rice Diet. After retirement, Newborg embraced the Durham non-profit scene. Her enthusiasm for new ideas and programming has been a great inspiration to many. Her financial support of numerous non-profits has been critically important to the great work going on in Durham. Newborg is a kind friend to all; be it people down on their luck and in dire need of a warm bed, gardens in need of nurturing, students in need of tutoring, musicians in need of operating funds, you name it and Newborg is there to help and inspire.