Sunbeam Family Services recently honored its volunteers at the organization’s volunteer appreciation luncheon and named its inaugural Volunteer of the Year, Ray of Sunshine and Community Partner award recipients.
Friends of Sunbeam, an auxiliary volunteer group that started in 2003, was named Volunteer of the Year. Friends of Sunbeam meets monthly with the Sunbeam staff where they learn of the organization’s program needs. The group puts together baskets for senior adults who are leaving Sunbeam’s senior emergency shelter to move into their new homes. They also recognize birthdays of children in the foster care program, host the annual Foster Care Easter egg hunt and Oklahoma City Educare book fairs where they also serve as reading buddies.
Catherine Divis received Sunbeam’s Ray of Sunshine Award. This award is presented to a new volunteer who has had significant impact on Sunbeam programs for one to three years. Divis, an employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma, is a member of the Beacons, Sunbeam’s young professionals’ board, which she helped to launch and now serves as President. Over the last three years, Catherine has invested herself as a volunteer in Sunbeam’s foster care child care events, the OKC Educare carnival, the organization’s Christmas store, and also serves as a liaison on the Sunbeam Board of Directors. In addition, she helps to recruit other volunteers for the organization.
Sunbeam named Junior League of Oklahoma City as its Community Partner of the Year. Sunbeam and Junior League have a long-standing relationship dating back to the 1940s when the group operated daycares for Sunbeam so that mothers could go to work and also helped to raise funds to create and support the work of the Child Guidance Clinic. Today, Junior League members lead Family Fitness Night at OKC Educare once a month allowing students and parents the opportunity to participate in activities that build and reinforce healthful eating habits, physical fitness and connection with family and community.
Last year approximately 2,130 hours were served by more than 700 volunteers to help support children, families and seniors in Sunbeam programs. To learn more about volunteering with Sunbeam, contact Taprina Milburn, Volunteer Manager, at 405.609.1755 or email [email protected].
Founded in 1907, Sunbeam Family Services is one of Oklahoma’s longest serving nonprofits, providing people of all ages with help, hope and the opportunity to succeed through early childhood, counseling, foster care and senior services. To learn more, visit www.sunbeamfamilyservices.org or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
