A Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty member was one of the winners of a special judging for a Daily Point of Light Award presented during National Volunteer Week.LaRue R. Reese, of Wellsboro, an assistant professor of human services/social sciences, received the award for April 24. The Daily Point of Light Award is given each weekday in honor of recipients who exemplify the best of volunteerism, a sense of caring, and responsibility for others that connects citizens and solves community problems.
The award program is co-sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Knights of Columbus, with funding from the Knights of Columbus.
Reese was nominated for the national award by staff at the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah, where he volunteered last year, according to Marla Howard, chief financial officer at the center.
Reese's nominators wrote: "A quiet and unassuming man, LaRue Reese serves as a powerful inspiration to the staff and clients of the National Ability Center.... He continually asked to help with any task, large or small, tedious or exciting, and set to work with genuine enthusiasm and without complaint. Never idle, LaRue served the center in a variety of ways."
The center offers outdoor sports and recreational experiences for disabled clients, as well as their families and friends.
At the center, Reese fixed and maintained such summer equipment as canoes and adaptive bicycles and, as winter approached, he also volunteered at the organization's ski center, where he prepared the adaptive equipment in time for the first lessons of the ski season.
"Always going above and beyond, LaRue often surprised the office staff with baked treats before heading out to the storage facility to work on equipment," the National Ability Center staff wrote. "Though he is a man of little words, LaRue spoke often through his warm smile, generosity and dedicated service. Clearly a man of great intelligence, he was willing to learn and support the National Ability Center's mission through the more mundane and tedious tasks critical to the center's ability to provide sports and recreation programs to people with disabilities."
"This is a high honor for LaRue, certainly a career highlight, and it's a source of pride for the program and Penn College at large," said Jeffrey J. Vetock, assistant dean of the School of Integrated Studies at Penn College.
Reese attests that he could not have achieved this honor without the support of the college and the human services department.
The Daily Points of Light program dates back to the administration of former President George Bush as "a movement to engage all individuals, families, businesses, groups and organizations in America to solve community problems."
Between 1989 and 1993, 1,020 Daily Points of Light were designated. The program was reinstated in 1998. Reese is Daily Point of Light No. 3,187. For more information, visit online.