Volunteer of the Year - Michael Carigon!

By Karen Bota
karen.bota@sentinel-standard.com 
Updated Apr. 26, 2013 @ 5:56 pm 

 

 

Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia celebrated service – and those who serve their communities – with an appreciation dinner Thursday evening at Belding High School.
Celebrate Service, the theme of National Volunteer Week this year, recognized ordinary people across the country who devote their time and talent to solving pressing problems in their communities, and motivating others tojoin them in serving.

Michael Carigon of Saranac was honored at the dinner as Volunteer Connection’s 2013 Volunteer of the Year. He received a certificate and a gift of a clock/picture frame.

Carigon, who was born and raised in Saranac and graduated from Saranac High School, was “humbled” to learn he had been selected.

“I know I’m pretty active in the community, and I wear many, many hats,” Carigon said. “I just like helping out the community.”

The program also paid tribute to volunteers from a variety of community programs, including the Basic Needs Committee, 2-1-1 Committee, Citizen Corps programs, Community Food Network, Ionia County Peace Community, Financial Literacy program, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and the United Way Montcalm-Ionia Counties.

The Lamplight Grill in Ionia and Huckleberry’s in Greenville supplied the main dishes for the dinner, and attendees brought side dishes to share. Cake decorating master Rosemary Reams provided the dessert.

Carigon was named Volunteer Connections’ first Volunteer of the Month in December 2012, recognizing his thousands of hours of training and volunteering with Montcalm-Ionia Medical Reserve Corps, Ionia County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Ionia County Skywarn, American Red Cross and many other organizations.

Locally, Carigon is a CERT member and recently passed the CERT train-the-trainer course. He served as Disaster Action Team leader and was the acting disaster duty officer lead for the Red Cross of the Greater Grand Rapids area. He is a member of Kent County Search and Rescue, doing radio operation for that team.

“Mike came to us as an amateur radio operator,” said Penny Beeman, also a member of the county’s CERT. “Through his work and a couple of others we know, we now have the ability to give the test and train others to be amateur radio operators. He always shares his skills and helps train and get more people involved.”

In the past year, Carigon took the class and testing to get his medical first responder license, “which is a big deal for our volunteers,” Beeman said.

When Carigon was deployed last fall to volunteer at a Red Cross emergency shelter in New Jersey for residents displaced by Hurricane Sandy, he responded to a medical emergency and used his cross-training to save a client’s life. By the time first responders arrived, he had applied CPR and used an automated external defibrillator (AED), and the client was beginning to regain consciousness.  

Carigon served recently as the night shift manager for the Red Cross emergency shelter at the Ionia Armory for local flood victims, and filled in during the day as needed. That mindset is what stood out for the committee that chose him as the Volunteer of the Year.

“Mike was selected for his dedication and willingness to do just about anything thrown at him, his willingness to lend a hand wherever and whenever he can,” said Beeman, who also is the coordinator for Volunteer Connections. “He’ll take additional training, learn new skills, and then share what he has learned with other people around him.”

Carigon is almost always available to volunteer, said Roger Packard, coordinator of CERT, Emergency Service Volunteers of Ionia County.

“It’s a rare day when we have some need, on short notice, and say, ‘Mike, can you do this?’ and he can’t. Usually, it’s ‘Sure,’” Packard said. “With some volunteers, you have to twist arms. With Mike, it’s just ‘Where?’ He’s a good man and he serves a lot of people in a lot of capacities. He’s very well-deserving.”

Carigon said he especially enjoys hands-on types of volunteering, “mingling” with people, like he did at the flood shelter in Ionia, and getting the word out to the community that there is assistance available.

“When the (Red Cross) Disaster Action Team goes to house fires, and there’s a person in the yard, the house is smoldering, it’s the look on their face when the Red Cross pulls up, and they know that help is there,” he said.

“I enjoy what I do. Volunteering broadens your horizons, opens your mind up to different things,” said Carigon. “It’s opened my eyes up quite a bit.”

Celebrate Service!

Register your Global Youth Service Day projects at www.ioniakidsclub.org!

RSVP to attend the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner on April 25th by emailing iccfoodnetwork@gmail.com!

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Appreciation Dinner

United Way Montcalm-Ionia Counties http://www.liveunitedm-i.org

 Volunteer Appreciation Dinner

Belding High School

April 25, 2013

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

“SPRING INTO SERVICE”

Celebrating People in Action!

National Volunteer Week is about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their community.  It’s about meeting our challenges not as isolated individuals, but as members of a community, with all of us working together to be the change, to make an impact, to get the job done!

Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties wishes to express our THANKS to all the volunteers who tirelessly share their time and talents with those in need. 

To celebrate service, many volunteers will be recognized for springing into service in support of community programs and nonprofit organizations. We will also be giving awards to these outstanding volunteers.

Volunteer of the Year

Youth Volunteer of the Year

Student Service Award

Help us take a moment to celebrate our volunteers.  By attending you will be able to share ideas, practices and stories with other volunteers and see what kind of activities are being carried out in our community!

Please bring a dish to pass.

Table settings and drinks will be provided.

For more information contact 1-800-417-2622 or iccfoodnetwork@gmail.com

Sentinel-Standard Article Celebrating Volunteers!

Check out this link to the Ionia Sentinel-Standard about one of our great CFN Volunteers!

http://www.sentinel-standard.com/article/20130308/NEWS/130309518?refresh=true#&refresh=true

 Patricia Davis of Muir named March Volunteer of the Month

Davis has held a volunteer role in her community for as long as she can remember.

By Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties

Mar. 8, 2013 4:12 pm

Patricia Davis visits the United Way office in Belding Thursday to pick up her prize package. Davis was named March Volunteer of the Month by Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties.

Patricia Davis visits the United Way office in Belding Thursday to pick up her prize package. Davis was named March Volunteer of the Month by Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties.

March Volunteer of the Month: Patricia Davis

Our THANKS can not be enough to cover all the time Patricia has dedicated to her community!  Throughout her life she has been active with 4-H, Girl Scouts, the Red Cross, and many others!

As a THANK YOU from Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties, Patricia received a care package including gift certificates to the Lamplight Grill, kneeling pads from the Community Food Network, 2-1-1 Magnets, and United Way bracelets to share with her Food Pantry Volunteers.

March Volunteer of the Month: Patricia Davis

ACTION:  What has your nominee done or is currently doing?

Patricia has always held a volunteer role in her community for as long as she can remember. In 1992 when Pat and her husband, John, moved to Muir, they started volunteering.  In two years they witnessed an increase in people needing help in their communities and started speaking to the local Churches and organizations to which they belonged to.  This included the Eastern Stars and Masons of Lyons where they raised more money and recruited volunteers for the food pantry.  When they were told about Feeding America they raised more funds and began buying van loads of food at a fraction of the cost.  In 2003 Pat was asked to take over running the Muir Christian Food Pantry.  And with the aid of her family, Patricia continues to serve the community by providing emergency food to families on demand and hosting a 1 day a month food distribution to local families struggling to provide food on a limited monthly budget.  On weeks that the food pantry is not open she is still working on funding and puts about 10 to 15 hours a week in and on weeks it is open she puts about 25 hours. She orders the food, arranges pick up, helps unload and organize shelves, calls people to volunteer or to donate.

Patricia remembers her family always helping out people and cleaning the church.  Patricia has been a life-long member of the North Plains Baptist Church where her parents attended and her grandchildren still attend!  Pat's parents always instilled in them the importance of helping people.  As a child she went along with her dad to help community members and as a teen she would always volunteer for anything her school had going, including decorating for community events and dances, helping with elderly neighbors, and being a part of 4-H.

As an adult, Pat continued to be involved as a 4-H Leader to her children, nieces and nephews, and neighbors.  As a young adult she also volunteered her time to the Eastern Star for their monthly dinners.  When she began to have children, Patricia taught them the importance of community by bringing them along to the special events she was helping with.  Patricia also served as a Sunday School Teacher for years at the North Plains Church and always helped out new neighbors, chaperoned school outings, and cleaned the church.  She instilled in her children the value of having respect for the Lords House and all that they were lucky to have.  She also served as a Girl Scout leader, Boy Scout Den Mother, and Republican delegate several times representing Muir, Michigan and the families that lived there.

NEED:  What community need(s) does your nominee address?

Over the years, the requests for help from the pantry have increased dramatically.  When the pantry started over 35 years ago, volunteers served around 20 families a year.  That has increased to nearly 120 families seeking assistance each month.

Several businesses in the area have been forced to close, leaving few job resources available to families.  Most residents work on the family farm or in one of the neighboring towns of Ionia or Portland, or further away in Grand Rapids or Lansing.  Patricia comes from a generation where neighbors helped neighbors.  If a neighbor needed clothes or toys for their children, Patricia and her husband would give what they could to help.  As local business owners, the Davis' remember a time when the community was busy and filled with family activities.  To watch families leave the area or struggle to survive with meager resources only builds to Patricia's heartfelt need to help community members where ever she can.  She has watched the community in which she lives grow and shrink countless times, but you can always count on Pat to give of herself.  In fact, Pat's daughters have been forced to "Lay Down the Law" in order to keep Pat from giving away the clothing on her back!  She has such a caring heart and desire to help her community members that Patricia has a hard time knowing her limits.  Even though she has struggled with personal health issues over the last year, she continues to serve the community with every ounce of energy she has!

IMPACT:  What is different as a result of your nominee’s service?

Just by adding up weekly commitments to the food pantry, Patricia easily spends 1020 hours each year coordinating donations, distribution days, and managing the pantry.  Since she began 10 years ago, Patricia Davis has easily served over 10,000 hours.  Each month volunteers at the food pantry serve 60+ families and for holidays the pantry generally prepares at least 100 food boxes to make a special meal for local families.  As coordinator Patricia oversees an average 22 volunteers in the pantry each month who contribute a minimum of 146 volunteer hours each month stocking, cleaning, and sorting food to make the pantry a vital community asset.

As part of the Community Food Network, Patricia volunteered 48 hours in 2012 attending planning meetings, trainings, and special events.  Many of this time was dedicated to the County-wide Food Drive in which 265 volunteers contributed over 868 volunteers to collect over 6,000 food items and over $800 in donations.  Without Pat's dedication to this project and all the work she put into planning and coordinating the project for 8 food pantries throughout Ionia County there is no way this food drive would have been this successful!

With the aid of her family, Patricia oversees two Community Gardens to grow fresh produce for the food pantry.  One is located beside the pantry where those in need can pick their own produce when available straight from the garden.  Another is located near the North Plains church and is taken care of by Pat's family and church members.  Yet, there is still a need for more fresh produce to help local families and therefore Pat has reached out to local growers and farmers requesting that left over produce be donated to the pantry.  In 2012, a family wanted desperately to have their own garden but required new top soil to make it happen.  Patricia tried tirelessly to find a donation of topsoil for this family and eventually ending up making this donation herself.  The family showed their appreciation by making weekly donations of fresh produce from their garden back to the food pantry helping other local families to enjoy the benefit of enjoying fresh produce.