Youth Volunteer of the Year
This award goes to a youth volunteer under age 21 who has contributed a minimum of 25 hours of service between January 2022 and December 2022. The winner receives a $500 Margaret Einspahr Memorial Award.

Individual Volunteer of the Year
This award goes to a volunteer over the age of 21 who has contributed a minimum of 25 hours of service between January 2022 and December 2022. The winner receives a $100 award to their organization.

Volunteer Manager of the Year
This award goes to a volunteer manager (paid or unpaid). The winner receives a $100 award to their organization in addition to a one year complimentary DOVIA Sacramento organization membership.

2023 Awards Recognizing Volunteer Managers and Volunteers

Six youth volunteers were nominated for Youth Volunteer of the Year, twenty individual volunteers were nominated for Individual Volunteer of the Year and three volunteer coordinators were nominated for Volunteer Manager of the Year.

The winners are:

Youth Volunteer of the Year

Rose Luo - Rose is a longtime teen participant at the Sacramento Public Library's Arcade branch. She re-joined the volunteer team after the library reopened to the public during COVID-19 and immediately took on a more prominent volunteering role. A talented artist and dedicated helper, she soon shouldered two monumental tasks: illustrating their seed library dividers to better advertise the collection and assisting with teen events every Saturday.

Individual Volunteer of the Year

Thuy Nguyen - Thuy serves in the Outpatient Services Department, Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento.. She escorts patients to their assigned bed, helping get them  ready for surgery. She checks on patients after surgery providing whatever comfort  items are needed. Thuy served as one of their Volunteer Trainers. In this position she helped with training new incoming volunteers; however, she also assisted with review and update of all documents. This requires working closely with the department liaison to assist  with communication and information disbursement.

Fast Forward 2022 - When COVID hit, and volunteers were given an opportunity for “leave of absence,” everyone except Thuy decided to take leave. Outpatient Surgery was suddenly  not an option. Instead of taking the easy route, Thuy walked in and said, “Where do  you need me?” She became an ambassador. Here is a list of the types of services  she performs: wheelchair round up and cleaning, Personal Protective Equipment distribution, Admissions Kits preparation and distribution, Greeter/Ambassador coverage and training, member escorts and general information. All these services helped to coordinate visitation, navigation, and safety.

Volunteer Manager of the Year 

Lynn Pesely - Lynn Pesely is the Coordinator for the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps. During the COVID-19 pandemic she supported Sacramento County's testing and vaccination clinics and other efforts supplying hundreds of volunteers. 424 volunteers served a total of 28,000 hours, an economic value of $1.4 million, for COVID-19 response at vaccination and testing clinics, COVID-19 Hotline, case investigation, after-hours calls, courier, and logistics. The silver lining of COVID-19 was the 700 volunteers who stepped forward to help in a time when most people were staying home. Volunteering not only helped strengthen the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services/Public Health COVID-19 response effort, it helped the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps volunteers (MD’s, RNs, LVNs, EMTs, Dentists and more medical professionals and non-medical volunteers) to make it through the pandemic by giving them a reason to get up and get dressed in the morning to go out and help the community which also helped give the volunteers purpose.

Lynn often had too many volunteers trying to secure the same shifts - a good problem to have! Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps volunteers often served multiple days a week, including overnight and weekends. Sometimes 20 volunteers were deployed a day at 5 different locations. During the COVID-19 response, 20 volunteers served 500+ hours, earning a Gold Presidential Service Award and 6 of those served 1000+ hours. 15 volunteers served 250+ hours earning a silver presidential service award, and 51 volunteers served 100+ hours earning a bronze Presidential Service Award. The volunteers who came onboard during COVID-19 are now dedicated to the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps program, continue to volunteer for a variety of events, have started friendships with other members, and some even support the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps Foundation with donations on the Big Day of Giving. In addition to the COVID-19 response, Lynn's volunteers have also supported the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services's response to wildfires and the recent winter storms and flooding.

Thank you 2023 Award Sponsors!

For more information:

Email:                 awards@doviasacramento.org

Phone:               (916) 334-1072, ext. 3

DOVIA (Directors of Volunteers in Agencies) Sacramento provides a forum for exchange of information on relevant issues for  professional volunteer managers and leaders of volunteers. Through collaborative efforts,  DOVIA Sacramento is committed to promoting services and emphasizing professional growth and development of the volunteer administration profession.