Senior of the Year Award
“I’m a person that kind of like, looks around for things that nobody else is doing, underserved things, and kind of try to make them work.”
That’s the attitude that helped earn Bob Tanner a Senior of the Year award from the Naperville Senior Task Force. Tanner was recognized for his volunteer work with the St. Raphael Knights of Columbus, where he serves as the chair of the intellectual disabilities drive.
“And in that role, we manage to get our collections up to about $35,000 which was the highest we’ve ever been able to do and the second highest in the state of Illinois,” said Tanner.
Helping The Homeless
Also receiving an award this year was Vicky Joseph. 1n 1994, Joseph founded Families Helping Families, a non-profit helping homeless people build their way back to self-sufficiency and stability.
“So they come in to Families Helping Families and they start to work on improving their credit score, many of them go back to school, improve their ability to earn enough in the workplace to provide for their families. But they all have one thing in common, and that’s that they want a better life for their children,” said Joseph.
Recognized for Selfless Service
Tanner and Joseph were both recognized by Mayor Steve Chirico at Tuesday night’s Naperville City Council meeting, receiving a plaque of recognition. And even in receiving the honor, true to character, they noted the good work others have put in as well.
“What I’d really like to do is share the award with the many, many volunteers who work alongside me in Families Helping Families,” said Joseph. “These mentors, there’s at least two volunteer mentors for each family, they’re there every week, sitting across the kitchen table from their client, and they’re unpaid life consultants. So, this award belongs to a lot of people.”
For Naperville News 17, I’m Kim Pirc.
photo courtesy: City of Naperville
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