Keep Irving Beautiful held its annual “Mayor and KIB Proud Partners Awards” reception on Monday, August 11 at the First Baptist Church of Irving. The 128 attendees enjoyed an appetizer buffet prepared by chef Kristine Sanborn and staff, while listening to the beautiful harp music of Becky Scherschell. Geoff Sirkel provided technical support and ran a PowerPoint of all the honorees during the reception and ceremony, while TJ Friedel served as event photographer. Guests were greeted and signed in by volunteers Elouise McMillian, Sandy Franco and Chandler Ude.
The awards ceremony, featuring Cathy Whiteman as Mistress of Ceremonies and Councilman Allan Meagher as the representative of the Mayor’s Office, honored the following “Proud Partners” winners:
- Youth Leadership Award (individual): Jenny Maique
- Youth Leadership Award (group): Alpha Zeta Eta Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society
- Educator Award: Christa Slejko, North Lake College
- Faith Group Award: Chris Carathers, Irving North Christian Church
- Business and Industry Award: Contech Engineered Solutions
- Media Award: Deborah Fleck, Dallas Morning News
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Helen Chaplin
- Civil Servant Award: Chief Victor Conley, Irving Fire Department
- Green Government Award: Dr. Elba Garcia
- KIB Hometown Award: Monica Ellington
- KIB Hometown Award: Allan Meagher
In addition to the Proud Partner winners, recipients of the 2014 Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful Awards were also recognized. In the KAB National Awards, VHA, Inc. was honored with a Distinguished Service Citation in the Business and Industry Category. Keep Texas Beautiful Awards winners included Emma's House, which received the Citation of Merit in the Civic Organization Program Category, the City of Irving Housing and Human Services Department, which won Honorable Mention in the Government Category, and Jim Scrivner, Energy Manager of the Irving ISD, who won First Place in the Sadie Ray Graff Educator Awards, Administrator Category. KIB Coordinator Rick Hose gave special awards of recognition to Code Enforcement Manager Mike Edwards and Code Officer Lukas Kratochvil for their many hours of service at special events.
KIB Volunteer Recognition Committee chair and hostess for the evening Margie Stipes summed up the evening by saying, “We look forward to this event each year as a way to say thank you to our volunteers and partners, who are so important to helping KIB fulfill its mission. Everyone in attendance is here because they care about our wonderful city and making it a better place to live, work and play, and we are very grateful for that.”
Keep Irving Beautiful is an award-winning, grassroots, non-profit leadership organization dedicated to educating community members about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification in order to help preserve the health and prosperity of our city. As an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful, the goals of Keep Irving Beautiful reach out to all aspects of Irving – government, business, civic and church organizations, schools, neighborhoods. All residents of Irving are a vital part of the program’s success.