Volunteer Dispute Mediators Among Latest ‘Points of Light’

Following are the people and organizations that have most recently been named to receive President Clinton’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://pointsoflight.org, or by contacting the foundation at 1400 I Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington 20005; (202) 729-8184.

The recipients:

1743. Roderick Powers, Auburn, Ala., who provides disaster-preparation training to local residents and organizations, helps coordinate outreach efforts for the East Alabama Medical Center’s volunteer program, and works with local school boards and children to increase student involvement in the community.

1744. ABC Unified School District & ABC Federation of Teachers, Buena Park, Calif., who have enlisted teachers and community residents as instructors for the Southside Schools Reading Partnership, a program designed to improve literacy among children at six local schools.

1745. Clark County Social Service Neighborhood Justice Center Volunteer Mediators, Las Vegas, which provides pro bono mediation services to families, neighbors, businesses, tenants and landlords, doctors and patients, and other aggrieved parties as an alternative to court proceedings; they also developed a Conflict Intervention Team that responds to large-scale racial conflicts in schools.

1746. Marnita Johnson, Woodbridge, Va., who has led two countywide efforts to document people without shelter, organized numerous food and clothing drives for the homeless, and expanded online fund-raising efforts to aid poor and homeless people.

1747. Patrick Rowe, Cheektowaga, N.Y., who founded the Silver Wheels Football Club in 1979, a recreational sports organization for physically and mentally disabled people.

1748. The Volunteer Services Council of the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, San Antonio, which provides clothing, food, G.E.D. classes, and computer-literacy courses to tuberculosis patients and their families.

1749. Kathleen Hammer, Vancouver, Wash., who tutors students at Peter S. Ogden School and acts as a mentor for them. She also coordinates programs for Women in Action, an after-school mentor program for at-risk girls, and runs the JASON Project, a program to teach science and technology to students in fifth through ninth grade.