2004
Hall of Fame - Elaine Dame
Elaine has been part of
the Verizon TelecomPioneer community for over 20 years. She has served
as Vice President and President for both the McLellan Council and the
Providence Life Member Club. Elaine is still active on the Providence
Life Member Club and currently serves as Past LMC President.
Elaine, along with her
husband Bill, co-ordinate the painting of at least 3 Pioneer Playground
MAP’s and “Mapping the Universe, A Solar System” each year at various
schools in the Providence area and also paint MAP’s and Solar Systems at
schools that are chosen for the “Rebuild Providence” project for the last
4-5 years.
During her tenure as
President, Elaine has been instrumental in introducing and/or organizing
many pioneer projects. Elaine recruited 2-4 volunteers to take turns
each month, to cook and serve a meal to the 30-50 clients at the Ronald
McDonald House in Providence. She continues to support and is the lead
volunteer at purchasing and delivering the food necessary for two holiday
meals every year to the Welcome Arnold Homeless Shelter. She reintroduced
cooking a hot meal and found the 10-20 volunteers, from her own Executive
Board, necessary to prepare and serve the 150+ clients at the Shelter.
Elaine also checks to see if any children will be there so story books or
coloring books and crayons are available.
A tragedy hit Rhode Island
when the Station Night Club caught fire and burned to the ground; some
patrons were severely burned and over 100 died. Elaine contacted the four
hospitals who treated the burn victims and made arrangements to have her
Executive Board deliver fruit trays and fruit baskets to the hospital
staff, along with a letter she composed, thanking them for their service
in such an unexpected tragedy. A donation was made to a Special Burn
Victims Fund set up for the many young people who did not have insurance.
Elaine helped 50 inner
city children from the South Bronx in NY attended a camp in Pascoag, RI
with funds provided by the LMC. Each child received a backpack filled
with school supplies put together by the LMC. Elaine introduced another
inner city group called Focus, which is a family outreach community
center. $500 was allocated for much needed school supplies and “A Book
About Me” was provided to each child. Elaine oversaw the purchase of “A
Book About Me” for another 102 children at the Woodlawn Catholic Regional
School.
Elaine was instrumental in
requesting grant money to purchase books and supplies to paint Pioneer
Playground MAP’s for some needy schools which will be shared by the four
life member clubs within the state. Elaine showed her good business
judgment when two items on her agenda needed to be addressed. One, was
how to recoup the cost of 6 Telephone Xmas Ornaments that did not sell,
and two, how to help the veterans home with purchasing much needed
curtains for some of the veterans rooms. Elaine was successful in
clearing these two items off of her agenda at the Providence LMC Xmas
luncheon. She held a separate special raffle just for the Telephone
Ornaments and all proceeds from this raffle would be given to the Veterans
Home to purchase the curtains. More that $400 was raised. The Club
presented the Veterans Home with $1,000 to purchase the curtains. Elaine
and her Executive Board were invited for a tour of the Veterans Home to
see what a difference curtains made to the veterans rooms. Elaine
participates in the Heart Walk, Ronald McDonald Walk, Make A Wish Walk,
the Imagine Walk for Autism and delivers Daffodil’s during Daffodil Week
for the American Cancer Society.
Elaine was recently
recognized by the Rhode Island Association of Facilities and Services for
the Aging with a “Quality of Life Award”. This award is given out to 19
recipients volunteering at Non-Profit Nursing facilities and Elaine
received it from St. Elizabeth’s Home for achieving 1000 volunteer
hours. Many thank you letters have been received and several newspaper
articles have been published as a result of the projects and activities
that she has undertaken.
Elaine displays the ideals
of pioneering and the objectives we strive to meet as a Chapter as
represented by the Pioneer triangle: creating opportunities for
fellowship with those we’ve worked with; while taking part in community
service projects to help those in need and loyalty to our sponsoring
companies for providing an avenue to continue our career friendships while
ensuring needed services in our communities continue.
Elaine organized Verizon
TelecomPioneers to bake over ten dozen cookies that were shipped to two
Verizon TelecomPioneers military personnel stationed in the Middle East to
be shared with fellow troops. In addition to her Verizon TelecomPioneer
activities Elaine is also a wish giver for “The Make A Wish Foundation”
for the past several years. She co-chairs and provides a weekly tea for
the residents at the St. Elizabeth’s Home.
Elaine is always there for
anyone and anything- willing to help wherever needed. Elaine’s husband
Bill is a loyal supporter of pioneering, participating in many projects
with Elaine. Elaine is a welcomed member of our Verizon TelecomPioneer
team and we are proud to have her on our team.
|
