January 2018 Staff Above & Beyond/ Hat's Off

The following staff members were nominated for the January Above and Beyond Award and Hat’s Off. The winners for the drawing of the $ 25.00 dollar gift card are: Brittney Bray, Colleen Rizzo, Shelly Brazier, Ren Sturgill, Amy Crawford and Jill Light.  Congratulations to all!! 

Melody Kirby: Mel has gone above her assigned duties in helping things get done while there is not teacher or family advocate. Things are getting done and staying current with her. Thank you Mel for all you do! 

Brittney Bray: Brittney does a great job helping me with all job duties. She is great help with our difficult student, as well as, helping me with lesson prep and notes. 

Nancy Blair: Nancy assisted her centers all year long with coverage issues while staff have been out or positions open. Nancy always finds a way to make it work even under the most difficult situations. She subs in the classroom, helps with meal prep, rides the bus, whatever it takes. Thanks for making sure our centers stay open!! 

Crystin Sammons and Colleen Rizzo: Crystin and Colleen have continuously kept a positive attitude while they have been short staffed for the most of the year and having different subs all the time. They have worked hard to make the new Batavia center run efficiently and provide a safe and loving environment for the children. In addition, they have had some difficult situations to work through and have always kept the children their first priority. We’re glad to have them part of our team. 

Chelsea Kaylor: Chelsea has gone above and beyond by making sure our classroom is set up and ready for each day. She has super ideas and follows through on preparation. She is always ready to jump right in!

Shelly Brazier: Shelly is being nominated for her work with the Child Focus Toy Drive and Giving Tree.  Each year brings growth in toys and number of families and children served and this year is no exception.  The toy drive netted, 1,407 toys, which was 300 more than last year.  Giving Tree had 132 families including 394 children, which was 13 more families with 78 additional more children than last year. Despite difficulty with late entries of some recipients into the Giving Tree event and the sponsors cancelling or not showing up on time, Shelly has expertly handled the logistics of both programs with grace and patience. During a very busy time for Child Focus and her own family, Shelly received a continuous help and support from her amazing daughter Shelby. Thank you, Shelly, for making sure so many of the CFI families have the opportunity to enjoy the holidays during such a busy and hectic time!

Amy Crawford and Renelda Sturgill: Amy and Renelda are nominated because they used their own time and money for knitting supplies.  Amy and Renelda have worked many, many hours, knitting one-of-a kind items to give to the families of the Giving Tree as well as other needy families. Each year, they have sold many items that they made and contributed the funds to the Giving Tree event. These funds were used to help CFI families not only during the holidays, but all year long. The time is well past due to recognize their efforts, as 2017 was their last year for the Making the Difference with Scarves initiative. We will truly miss the unique items that we purchased for our own families and friends. Thank you both for your hard work and dedication for making the difference for many families for many years! 

Jill Light:  Jill came up with a wonderful initiative to create an igloo, made from milk jugs, as an addition to the Sensory Santa Event and setup.  She and her family worked evenings and weekends to assemble the igloo, deck it with lights and other decorations. Jill spent well over 20 hours on this project and donated her person time to get this incredible igloo in time for the event. Thank you, Jill, for your creativity and hard work to make the Sensory Santa event a success!      

Hats Off nominations

A big shout out to the staff at the Mt Orab office who helped to prepare for the Sensory Santa event.  We had 79 kids slotted to attend the event.  Staff helped to cut out snowflakes for the hallway and walls, they washed out over 600 milk jugs for the igloo, they stuffed toys into bags for Santa to give to the children as well as stuffed bags with crafts for the families to do after meeting Santa.

Two rooms were devoted to seeing Santa and they helped to decorate those rooms and ensure that everything was ready for the event.  Several staff worked on Saturday to help with the event. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to making a difference in the life of a child!  It is greatly appreciated!

Suzie DeTellem has been phone screening all job applicants for CMH. She gets good information to relay to the program coordinators and supervisors involved in the new hire interview process. Suzie is always pleasant, upbeat and is a joy to work with!

Due to Behavioral Health Redesign there has been added work for Tracy Devaux.  You would never know it though.  Tracy has remained very positive and compassionate even when I make mistakes after being trained, which most people would be annoyed.  She also works hard on responding to requests in a quick manner.  She makes it easy to contact her, gaining support as needed.  She is a huge asset to helping me be a better employee! Thank you Tracy!