Public Service Recognition Award

The Public Service Recognition Award is an honor bestowed by the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts to recognize citizens who have performed outstanding acts of service to the community.[1] It is presented "to a citizen or citizens of Dedham who by his/her actions best exemplifies the spirit of public service through their sharing of time, talent, and energy for the betterment of our Community."[2] Winners receive an original painting of the Fairbanks House, America's oldest timber frame house.[3]

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The founding chairman of the committee has said that "There are far too many unsung heroes in our community. Our goal is to sing some of their praises and give them the recognition they deserve for the good works they do day in and day out."[2] Donald Gosselin, the first recipient of the award, said in his acceptance speech that "Any program that encourages volunteering is a great benefit to our community."[3] He added that there wasn't "enough capacity in this auditorium" to recognize all of the volunteers in town.[3]

In 2012, Town Meeting created the Public Service Recognition Committee to select the winner and present the award immediately before the Spring Annual Town Meeting.[1][2] This committee has seven members, appointed by the Town Moderator, with one from each of the town's seven precincts.[2] Nominations are solicited from members of the public.[2]

Winners
Year Adult Youth
2013[4][3][5]Donald GosselinNot awarded
2014[4][5]Amy BlackCaroline Bell
2015[4][5]Bill PodolskiNot awarded
2016Rita Mae CushmanJakob Farnham and Kyle Fonseca[6]
2017Tim Kelleher
2018[7]Dimitria SullivanEric and Jack Linari

Committee chairmen
Year Chairman
2013Brian Keaney[3]
2014Susan Fay[4]
2015Susan Fay
2016Marianne Martin[5]
2018Cheryl Schoenfeld[7]
gollark: Most trips are *not* that long, and I figure for long ones, if there was more automation and efficiency in the process, you could rent a longer-range car temporarily (in some hypothetical world where this is a common thing).
gollark: Well, then you can use... a non-electric car, for now.
gollark: It's not like you need most cars to be able to satisfy every eventuality.
gollark: As I sort of said, I think having a personal car around all the time which is designed for really long trips and incurs a lot of expense that way is kind of wasteful.
gollark: It could be done partly manually for now anyway.

References
  1. Warrant Article 39, Annual Town Meeting, May 21, 2012
  2. Fay, Susan (January 17, 2013). "New Dedham Public Service Recognition Award". Patch. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  3. Eisenstadter, Dave (May 20, 2013). "Dedham award recipient thanks Town Meeting for recognizing volunteers". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  4. "Podolski is 2015 Recipient of Dedham Public Service Recognition Award". The Dedham Times. May 8, 2015. p. 9.
  5. "Dedham Public Service Award". The Dedham Transcript. April 15, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  6. "Dedham High School Students Honored". Patch. May 12, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  7. "Dedham Town Meeting". Town of Dedham. May 21, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
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