Sunday, April 16, 2000

Volunteers are venerable role models

The power of one really does make a difference. We hope that the Caller-Times/Channel 6 Jefferson Volunteer Award profiles broadcast every Sunday on KRIS-TV and published every Monday in the Caller-Times give readers an idea of all the ways, big and small, volunteers improve our community.
   More importantly, we hope that in highlighting such excellence in service to the area, others are inspired to do the same.We began this effort in 1992 as a local sponsor of the Jefferson Awards, a national awards program spearheaded by the American Institute for Public Service. The institute was founded in 1972 by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former U.S. Sen. Robert Taft Jr., and Samuel S. Beard, former staff associate of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, to establish a Nobel Prize for outstanding community and public service. KRIS-TV has joined the newspaper as a partner in this ninth year of local participation.
   To date, the Jefferson Awards have recognized 382 Coastal Bend volunteers. Fifty-two have received bronze medallions bearing the Great Seal of the United States and cast by the Franklin Mint.
   Extraordinary stories
   Volunteers have many reasons for giving of their time and energies. For some, an illness in the family proved the catalyst for action. Others say volunteerism is as much a family tradition as baking cookies for Christmas. And others remember a kindness extended to them somewhere along the path of life that so moved them that giving back became a way of life.
   Through the years, we've brought you some extraordinary stories about the kind of unsung heroes living in our midst, like that of Bill Colston and his brother, Leslie. The Colstons won their awards in 1995 for their work as volunteer paramedics with the Riviera Volunteer Fire Department. Although his brother has left town, Bill Colston, a fire department volunteer for 31 years, continues to give medical assistance along U.S. Highway 77 from Kingsville to Raymondville.
   Pedro and Maria Elena Rodriguez won their awards in 1997 for work they continue to do today along U.S. Highway 281 in Brooks County. The two handle Emergency Medical Services for the community of Encino, rushing to whatever crisis occurs.
   'All things must pass'
   But the march of time also has claimed some of our heroes. Bob Kearns, for example, a Texas master gardener who created the Children's Garden at the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens as well as the Growing Project that is now a part of some of our schools, was a Jefferson winner in 1996. Kearns died last year, but his legacy of volunteerism is in full bloom wherever he once applied his green-thumb talents.
   A year before his death, Kearns told me that he had no difficulty entrusting his pet projects to another generation.
   "All things must pass," he said. "You have to pass what you know and what you do. At some point you have to turn 'em loose so that they can do it on their own. They're smart enough to do it too."
   A simple act of faith that spoke volumes of what one man had to give this world. We remain forever indebted to all the Kearns, Rodriguezes and Colstons who make this part of Texas a better place to live.
  
  
 

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