Local Citizen Receives Governor's Volunteer Award

Posted by Jacquie Persson on Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Christy Decker was honored with an Individual Volunteer Award by EITA, the Eastern Iowa Tourism Association, in recognition of her work with the organization.

“It’s always a great pleasure for me to honor and recognize the volunteers who accomplish extraordinary things through service to help their communities, fellow citizens, and the great state of Iowa,” said Governor Branstad.  “These dedicated volunteers lead by example—not only encouraging the people they help, but motivating others to serve as well.  I sincerely thank them all for their dedication and efforts.”

“The Governor and I are strong believers that our community volunteers, charitable nonprofits, and faith-based institutions are often best equipped to provide long-term solutions to the challenges we face,” said Lt. Governor Reynolds.  “Some of our most promising and cost-effective solutions to literacy, disaster response, drop-out prevention, and community development are fueled by tapping into our best assets—our people and our volunteer spirit.”

The Governor’s Volunteer Awards (GVA) program was created in 1982, with inaugural awards presented in 1983.  What began as a small program for state government agencies, has expanded over the years and now provides all Iowa nonprofit, charitable, and government organizations with an easy way to honor their volunteers with a prestigious state-level award.  Hundreds of volunteers are recognized each year with awards in one of four categories: Individual, Group, Length of Service or Disaster Volunteer.

Recipients of the Governor’s Volunteer Award do not necessarily need to live in Iowa, but their service must have benefited Iowans or an Iowa organization.  Award criteria include an individual or group who has:

• demonstrated exceptional commitment to volunteerism by helping with a special project or ongoing activities
• demonstrated exemplary leadership, creativity, cooperation and hard work in their service to others
• made an outstanding contribution to state or community through volunteer service

The Governor’s Volunteer Award program is coordinated by the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service and the Governor’s Office.  For more information, visit www.volunteeriowa.org/awards or call 515.725.3094.

A complete list of 2014 award recipients and an electronic copy of this news release are available at www.volunteeriowa.org/awards.  Electronic photographs will be available from this website approximately one week following each ceremony or may be requested by sending the individual’s or group’s name and which ceremony they attended to icvs@iowa.gov.

About the ICVS (or Volunteer Iowa)

The Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service (ICVS or Volunteer Iowa) and its partner agencies work with organizations and individuals on three main fronts.  The first is to help agencies develop quality programs that use service as a strategy to fulfill their missions and address Iowa’s greatest areas of need.  The second is to help engage Iowans in their communities by promoting service and expanding the volunteer base.  Finally, the third area of work is to connect individuals with appropriate service opportunities by building the volunteer infrastructure.  More information is available at www.volunteeriowa.org.