Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley

Air Products-HyCO Engineering, nominated by Valley Youth House.

For the third time in four years HyCO sent workers to Valley Youth House’s Camp Fowler to undertake ambitious projects. Volunteers built picnic tables, a gazebo and bridges, painted cabins, stained fences and other wooden structures, removed brush and built an extension on a storage barn. The thousands of kids Valley Youth House serves are grateful for the generosity and for the donation of time, sweat and skills to improve this community resource.

Panera Bread, nominated by Camelot for Children.

For 2009 Panera made a commitment to partner with Camelot for Children. At each café a bulletin board displays information about Camelot and each café is host to coin containers, with Panera matching each donation. They’ve also been kind enough to share their delicious products for various children’s events and fundraisers.
Panera also lent the hearts and man power of its staff with 32 employees volunteering for a variety of our children’s events for a total of 275 combined hours. The exuberance and enthusiasm of these volunteers when interacting with our special needs children is touching. The store managers have been fantastic in motivating their staff to get involved by 'leading by example'.
Their levels of kindness are truly an asset to the community.

Sodexo, nominated by Lehigh County Conference of Churches.

Sodexo, nominated by the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, was cited for their contributions of resources and volunteers to enable the agency to serve over 600 hungry men, women and children each week at their LCCC Soup Kitchen and 500 meals each week in their Daybreak drop-in center. Whether it is serving food, interacting with clients or taking part in a special project, this agency has been able to count on Sodexo through Executive Vice President Bob Wood to support their mission.

Olympus Corporation of the Americas – Peripheral Vision, Employee Volunteer Group

Peripheral Vision, the Olympus corporate band, is a group of musicians comprised of 9 employees. Presenting a repertoire of classic and contemporary rock music to appeal to listeners of all ages, the band performs at events, free of charge, providing a form of entertainment that increases attendance and, therefore, the impact on fund-raising for the organization.
The combined number of hours of volunteering from October, 2008 through September, 2009, including rehearsals and performances, is 1,825 (not counting individual practice time at home for each musician to learn new songs, etc.)

Concannon, Miller & Co. – Charity Committee, Company Project

In an effort to coordinate and expand upon their charitable efforts, 6 employees of Concannon, Miller & Co. volunteered to form a Charity Committee. After initiating numerous projects and events for the benefit of various non-profits throughout the Lehigh Valley, to date, the employees have raised and contributed over $7500 and volunteered 100’s of hours. The Charity Committee’s efforts have focused the firm’s spirit of giving to provide the most beneficial use of their resources, resulting in many more people being helped than would have been possible without a coordinated plan.

Sue Ficzko, Crayola employee, Individual Employee Volunteer.

In the past year, Sue has been Crayola’s Champion for many volunteer efforts including December’s Crayola Cares Holiday Gift Project, which donates Holiday Hope Chest to local youth serving agencies and Angel Tag gifts for children at the Boys and Girls Clubs in Allentown and Easton. She chairs Daffodil Days at Crayola and raises thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society. Sue has been a long time member of both the Brand Ambassador and United Way teams. While all of these projects have been important to her, the prom dress collection for the YWCA of Bethlehem seemed to grab her heart. She organized a collection of used prom dresses for the YWCA’s Prom Dress Day for young girls unable to buy dresses to wear to their prom.

President's Volunteer Service Award Winners