Housing Advocate Is Among ‘Points of Light’ Winners

Following are the people and organizations that have most recently been named to receive President Bush’s Daily Points of Light Award.

The Points of Light Foundation, a Washington charity, assists the president in making the choices and carrying out the award program. More information about the award winners and the program is available at the foundation’s Web site, http://www.pointsoflight.org, or by contacting the foundation at 1400 I Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20005; (202) 729-8184.

The recipients:

2141. Greta Menke, Bristol, Wis., a volunteer advocate with the Women and Children’s Horizons Law Enforcement Advocacy Program; each time a law-enforcement officer responds to a domestic-abuse call in Kenosha County, Wis., he or she offers to call an advocate who then goes to the scene and offers support and information to the victim.

2142. Charlene Clark, Concord, N.H., a pet therapist who has volunteered at a local psychiatric hospital since 1994; Ms. Clark and her dog, Buster Brown, visit with mentally ill patients, some of whom are unresponsive to human and drug therapies alone but respond positively to interaction with animals.

2143. Ray Lovely, Port Angeles, Wash., a volunteer at Olympic National Park for nearly 10 years who has organized retired people, high-school students, and others to create and maintain the Living Forest Trail and other loop trails in the park.

2144. Family Links, Pittsburgh, a nonprofit group that provides Pittsburgh-area residents with a wide array of human services, including assistance with crisis intervention, housing and emergency shelter, and mental-health and substance-abuse problems.

2145. Rita France, Johnston, S.C., who travels 20 miles each way to Ridge Spring Baptist Church, where she teaches English-language classes that benefit adult agricultural workers from Guatemala and Mexico.

2146. Holli Pruitt, Rockwall, Tex., an 18-year-old volunteer at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas who was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 3 and who received treatment at the center; today her activities include assembling patient packets and babysitting young patients whose parents cannot be with them.

2147. Marisa Flavin, McLean, Va., who has volunteered for the past four years as a tutor at the Saturday School program at Eugene Meyer Elementary School, in Washington; the program serves academically talented, inner-city students, who are often ignored as their schools focus instead on raising average standardized-test scores.

2148. USS Saipan, Norfolk, Va., whose crew members participated in tutoring, school renovations, and other community-service activities while the ship was docked in Norfolk for a 13-month maintenance period.

2149. Shantelle Cochran, Layton, Utah, president of the Layton Youth Court, a peer-based program that adjudicates cases involving misdemeanor offenses by adolescents with no prior criminal record.

2150. Carl Zimmerman, Bayside, N.Y., a retired commercial artist who founded AMP@115, an organization that pairs struggling first and second graders with elderly mentors; when the child reaches third grade, he or she is then paired with an honor student who serves as a big brother or sister.

2151. Dave Marshall, Heber Springs, Ark., who has served as the volunteer manager of Cleburne County Cares since 1991; during his tenure, the organization has expanded its services to include an annual Christmas-gift program, a homeless shelter, and scholarships for poor, single parents attending college.

2152. Noyes Free Health Clinic Program, Dansville, N.Y., which provides residents of western New York State with health education, fitness and safety activities for youngsters, and screenings for glaucoma, hearing loss, high cholesterol, skin cancer, and other conditions.

2153. Therese Cote, Hudson, N.H., whose myriad volunteer activities include serving as president of the Hudson Seniors, assisting with Daffodil Days at the local affiliate of the American Cancer Society, and helping with administrative duties at the Nashua Police Department.

2154. Mark Moseley, Harrisburg, Pa., an affordable-housing advocate who has served on the board of several housing and social-services organizations, learning first hand about the links between high housing costs, welfare restructuring, and poverty; his experiences led him to establish a shelter for single mothers and to work with Rural Opportunities, a group that focuses on housing issues affecting migrant workers.

2155. Steve Edwards, Rome, Ga., who started the One Family Helping One Family program to help hundreds of low-income families pay their gas bills and avoid eviction from public housing, following state deregulation of the natural-gas industry.

2156. Heidi Greene, Powell, Tenn., a teenager whose volunteer activities include serving as a literacy tutor, recruiting other students for community-service projects, and pressing for improved safety measures after classmates and friends were killed in local automobile and caving accidents.

2157. Jean Hand, Coarsegold, Calif., founder and director of the Children’s Museum of the Sierra, a 4,000-square-foot facility whose creation she spearheaded after discovering that there were few educational opportunities for youngsters and families in rural central California.