Three recognized for valued
volunteer service to the community
In 2012 the Monika W. Andrews Creative Volunteer Leadership Award was established as a memorial by three municipalities “to encourage, recognize, and reward outstanding creative leadership by residents of the Towns of Sweden (including the Village of Brockport) and Clarkson who have served as volunteer leaders in improving the lives of their fellow citizens and the greater Brockport community.”
In the February 5, 2018, Brockport Village Board meeting, the 2017 Monika W. Andrews Creative Volunteer Leadership Award was presented to Gary Skoog. Hanny Heyen and John Rombaut each received certificates of merit.
Gary Skoog Award Winner
Citizens in the wider Brockport area enjoy a high quality of life due in great part Gary Skoog’s leadership. From the Selection Committee’s list of his volunteer activities over 50 years (see side bar), some of the most immediate and most enduring are:
The “Summer Serenades,” popular concerts at the Brockport Welcome Center coordinated by Gary who works on logistics, fund raising, and signing up performers. He is also the Welcome Center’s building coordinator, assuring the facility is in good condition and serving our canal visitors well.
Gary is vice chair of the Oak Orchard Health Corporation where top-quality health care is available at the Oak Orchard Clinic at 300 West Avenue and outlying counties.
For decades, the Town of Sweden’s natural environment has been preserved and protected by the Town of Sweden Environmental Board which was founded and chaired by Gary in 1973.
During the same period the Brockport – Sweden area has evolved as a viable, well-planned community under Town of Sweden/Village of Brockport Master Plan, with Gary as its first chairman.
Leadership background and attitudes
Born and raised in Jamestown, NY, all four of Gary’s grandparents were Swedish immigrants. He graduated from The College at Brockport in 1968 with a major in Economics and minor in History. He and his wife, Lori, were married in 1967. One week after graduation, he started working in The College’s admissions office, putting down Brockport roots for the first time.
Just a few years later, he jumped into municipal government by initiating the conservation board, and, soon after, leading the Master Plan committee.
Saying leadership was always important to him, Gary reflected back to junior and senior high school when he was voted into leadership positions on the Key Club, Varsity Club, and Student Council. As a member of the football and track teams, his self-confidence was boosted by his coaches.
Gary sees leadership and care-taking as inseparable. He looked back at being a “caretaker” for his father in his last days, eventually passing away in their Brockport home. “I was that kind of a person: Take care of family, do for your community,” Gary said. “With Key Cub, Varsity Club, Student Council, there was always that essence of helping or doing in your community.
Gary finds his current work in health care to be the most significant “helping” he has done as a volunteer in the community. “Serving on the board (Oak Orchard Health Corporation) for four years, and now as vice chair, has been a real positive experience for me,” Gary said. “Of all the boards I have been on, this is the biggest responsibility because it’s health care and there is major federal funding involved. We have to meet very high standards of health care delivery. Fortunately, in 2017, we passed all 19 criteria the government requires. When you see the growth we are experiencing now, with more patients and better service, it is very fulfilling to me.”
Hanny Heyen Certificate of Merit
Parks
Go to 52 South Avenue in Brockport and you will see the latest evidence of Hanny Heyen’s creative and diligent work for the good of the people. Where an historic home had been demolished years ago, that vast lawn is now a village park. As a village board member in 2006, Hanny prompted the village board to designate the green space owned by the village as a park in an area that had none. In the spring of 2017 the second phase of playground equipment was installed with a grant she obtained.
The nominating statement says, “Go to any of Brockport’s other eight parks and you’ll see evidence of Hanny’s guiding hand: the pavilions at the Utica and Barry Street parks, new fence bordering Corbett Park, the Pickle Ball Courts at Barry Street Park, new swings at Corbett Park.”
Serving as chair, and recently co-chair, of the Brockport Parks Committee from 2014 to 2017, Hanny’s leadership for parks also has resulted in: a first-ever certified equipment safety audit; a parks usage survey; the Village Code Parks Law; equipment grants from Wegman’s and BISCO; media publicity on park activity; a parks brochure, new signage (including park rules); a mission statement for the Parks Committee, and the annual “Saturday of Service” in the parks by college freshmen, coordinated by Hanny, to clean, weed and upgrade.
Senior Citizens
Another hallmark of Hanny’s volunteer work “took root in the Village of Brockport with her shepherding of the new Sweden Senior Center on State Street as Director (1982-86) and continued with her advocacy for Sweden seniors, including her efforts in 2014 to save the Sweden Senior Center from closing,” the nominating statement says. Through Sweden Town Board action, in 2017 the senior activities were moved from the State Street building to the Sweden Clarkson Community Center. Hanny remains an advocate for seniors at their new location, involved in programs like Dresses for Girls Around the World and the new “Souper Bowl” soup tasting event this year.
Background and Motivation
In 1962 Hanny graduated from The College at Brockport with a major in Health and Physical Education. She said the recreation aspect of her college major was a strong background for planning senior activities and parks facilities. That same year she married husband Bill.
Hanny (born Hannelore Greiner in Berlin, Germany) came to the U.S. with her family right after World War II. The family settled in a rural hamlet called Nashville, New York. She traces her volunteer motivation to the caring she received from farm families in the area. “I think volunteerism for me stems back to people being so kind to me as an immigrant,” Hanny said. “They also knew my home life was not good. My neighbors took me in many summers. They involved me in 4H and church activities. In school it was the same thing. It was these people I learned to admire for their caring attitude, and that’s what I try to carry forward today.”
John Rombaut Certificate of Merit
Library
A visitor to the Seymour Library just assumes the doors will operate, the lights will be on, and the plumbing will work. And, the facility does not disappoint, thanks to John Rombaut who attends to such details.
Unknown to the public, John volunteers his time on-call to keep the facility operating smoothly. Seymour Library Director, Carl Gouveia, in nominating John, presented a long list, just a sample of the kinds of quality services John performed over four years: repaired and replaced toilets, sinks and related parts; installed a new water fountain; replaced ballasts and switches for lighting; replaced door weather stripping and handles; installed items in the Children’s Room, and added hooks and shelves to the janitor’s closet. “Since he donates every minute he works, the library has only had to pay for parts, thus saving a great deal of money,” Carl said. John finds reward in working for a “great bunch of people who are always friendly,” he said. “Carl is great guy to work with as were his predecessors.”
Firefighting
John’s other volunteer work is more critical, insuring the safety of firefighters’ gear. When firefighters rush to a fire, their lives depend on their protective gear being in perfect condition. “John is our inventory control person,” said Charles Sanford, Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners for the Brockport Fire District. “He is the department go-to person for any equipment needed to assure our firefighters’ safety on the fire grounds. John has a yearly program schedule set to inspect all the firefighters turn out equipment; this includes helmets, coats, boots, bunker pants, safety harnesses, hoods, harness components and gloves. We in the District cannot thank him enough.”
John, now 71, started in the Brockport Fire Department in 1968 and went out on calls until two years ago when “I gave up my coats and boots,” he said. “This is a young man’s game,” he told himself. Then, he took on the computerized program to inventory equipment and monitor the condition of each piece. He also supports firefighters as a member of the coffee committee serving refreshments to firefighters on the scene. As a member of Brockport Exempts on West Avenue, he does needed repairs there, as well as at the Capen Hose Museum on Main Street.
Background
John was a field machinist at Kodak medical products division for 29 years, until it was sold to Johnson & Johnson Ortho Clinical Diagnostics where he continued five more years until retirement. Starting with a four-year apprenticeship his work was installing pumps, motors, big tanks and other steel work.
John is aware that the hands-on trades are greatly needed in our society, yet are fading, such as plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, and carpenters. “I learned a lot from my dad who was a pipefitter and a good hands-on man, good hands-on man, too,” John said. His father told him people will always have plumbing, automobiles, electrical appliances and other devices that will inevitably break down. “That means you have a job for a lifetime,” he recalls his father saying. “I always took that to heart,” John said. “It’s a need and someone has to do it.”
He might say the same thing about his volunteer work at the library and the fire district. No longer a source of income, his skill is needed and has other rewards. “I am glad I can do it,” he said. “I enjoy helping people.”
(NOTE: For the 2017 award, members of the Selection Committee were: Chrys Gross, Clarkson; Linda Ketchum, Brockport; and Robert Westbrook, Sweden.)
Selection Committee’s list of Gary Skoog’s
volunteer activities over 50 years
Member and Past President, Brockport Kiwanis
Member and Past President, Greater Brockport Development Corporation
Member and Past President, Western Monroe Historical Society
Past Chair, Town of Sweden/Village of Brockport Master Plan
Founder/Past Chair, Town of Sweden Environmental Board
Past Member, The College at Brockport Alumni Board – started “First Fridays” events
Past Member, Northeast Organic Farmers Association of New York Board
Coordinator of the Brockport “Summer Serenades”
Building Coordinator of the Village of Brockport Welcome Center
Current Vice Chair, Oak Orchard Health Corporation
Appointed to the National Advisory Committee of Migrant Health
Member, Garlic Seed Foundation
Volunteer Crossing Guard during National “Walk to School Day”
Trustee/Treasurer of the Brockport Community Museum
