Recognition Where It's Due

In a small town with a limited number of opportunities for recognition, sometimes it seems that the same people are always being awarded for their good deeds. And then once in a while someone who has been working in the background for years without much notice finally gets his or her day in the spot light.

I was lucky enough to be at Canandaigua Rotary's Foundation Dinner last night to witness one of those events.

Since well before I first gave a tour at the Granger Homestead, Carla DeMeco was dressing in costume and guiding busloads of tourists through the mansion. She also assisted at major events, worked long hours checking in exhibitors at the festival of trees and did any number of other unglamorous things.

Since well before I joined the Professional Women of the Finger Lakes (or the Canandaigua BPW as it was when I joined), Carla was there too. She led the scholarship committee for countless years, raising and distributing tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to High School seniors and women returning to school after a break. She has also been driving force behind the Christmas gift committee which sees the club collect and distribute clothing, gifts, and food to less fortunate women families each year.

She is amazing. And as of Wednesday night's dinner when she was given a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow award, it's no longer a secret.

Carla joined four others in receiving the award at the dinner. Jack Kellogg, Jack Moran, Doug Lowden and Fred Magley were also recognized for their contributions to both Rotary and the Canandaigua community.

As much as it was an honor for Carla and the gentlemen to receive the award, I consider it my honor in knowing them all.