RNeighbors - Rochesterfest Neighbor Awards 2007

RNeighbors Staff, Board Members, and Friends

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:26:56 -0500

The RNeighbors family was out in force during this celebration of neighbors.

Pictured above from left to right include:

Front row
Jim Lafflam, RNeighbors.org webmaster; Bob Suk, Board President; Liana Michelfelder-Tessum, Board member, Rene Lafflam, Executive Director; Tami Timbeross, Board member, Tanya Plonka, volunteer; Bob Nowicki, Board member; and Darrel Hilderbrant, Board member.

Back row
Jeff Ellerbusch (peeking in the back), Board member; Amy Thompson, Board member; Ardell Brede, Mayor of Rochester; Mike Podulke, Board member; and Dave Mo

Neighbor of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:23:40 -0500

This Year’s Neighbor of the Year Award goes to Maxine Orke.

Maxine was nominated by Former Mayor Chuck Hazama. In the award nomination, he stated that their neighborhood has had block parties for over 35 consecutive years. Maxine has been coordinating this event for many, many of those years - too many to count!

She sets up a neighborhood agendas, keeps block maps updated and coordinates the food, entrees, desserts and more. This neighborhood is thankful to have Maxine as their neighbor and Rochester is thankful have her as Neighbor of the Year!

Neighborhood of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:18:24 -0500

Susan Kinter and her Historic South West Neighborhood is honored this year. The neighborhood is an organized neighborhood watch; they have CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) certified by FEMA; and celebrate all of life’s events such as the annual St. Patrick’s Day party, Annual New Year’s gathering, Birthdays, Anniversaries, and good-bye parties.

Other organized neighborhood events include Neighborhood Watch meetings, NNO picnics, Annual garage sale, and also have a representative to the local neighborhood association (Historic South West Neighborhood Association.

If this is not enough, they take care of one another through physical illnesses, financial hardships and more.

Neighborhood Block Watch of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:13:13 -0500

This year’s Neighborhood Block Watch of the year goes to Randy Batzel of 12th Avenue SE. This block watch is CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) certified and have been busy this year, closing down two drug houses, unifying their neighborhood.

When ever the police department needs some one to step up to the plate, this block captain is the first to respond. He has never missed sending in his annual report, keeps his maps updated, and does a walking patrol of his neighborhood watch area.

Not to mention that every Christmas, Randy decorates his house to the max. He has Santa Clause stop by and pass out candy canes to the folks who drive by to check out the SE neighborhood.

Neighborhood Hero of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:12:14 -0500

This year’s Neighborhood Hero of the Year was only 7 years old when she became a hero.

Our winner, Tristen Trogstad is now 8 years old. Tristen ran for help to save her grandmother from a very serious medical situation. Her grandmother was babysitting several grandchildren and collapsed and was unresponsive. She left the house and ran next door to have an adult neighbor call 911 and get help.

Tristen knew where to go, what to do and how to do it. We honor her tonight with this award.

Neighborhood Project of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:54:04 -0500

This year’s Neighborhood Project of the Year goes to the Meadow Park Neighbors' Newsletter.

Meadow Park Neighbors is a fairly new neighborhood, having just organized in May of 2006. They wasted no time in assembling a data base of neighborhood members, holding monthly meetings at Mayo High School with interesting speakers, and assembling neighborhood-wide events. Just this last weekend (June 15-16), they held a garage sale in Meadow Park, which included over 50 homes!

Their newsletter is just one of many amazing things that this neighborhood has gotten up and running. The quarterly multi-page publication is mailed to each home in Meadow Park and is paid for through sponsors and printing is donated by Gold Cross Ambulance. Each edition is filled with an update from their City Council member, RNeighbors, Association President, and current hot topics for their neighborhood.

Neighborhood Association of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:39:44 -0500

This year’s Neighborhood Association of the Year winner is the Gardens Neighborhood Association, in SE Rochester.

The Garden's is a brand new Neighborhood Association. In one year they have managed to get their entire association (100%) covered by block watch captains, hold monthly potlucks and have a complete directory filled with all of their homeowners/renters.

This association is extremely organized and sets an excellent example of what a Neighborhood Association should do in its first year.

Pictured above is Joshua, lead organizer in this Association. We congratulate the G

Neighborhood Event of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:23:04 -0500

At the beginning of 2007, Mark St. Peter and Craig Weckwerth came to Mayor Brede with the idea of building a "trash mountain". They were interested in getting community members involved in a city-wide litter clean up effort.

The Mayor brought a team of organizations together to plan and coordinate what would become aptly named, Help Make Rochester A Litter Bit Better!

Because these two ordinary Rochester residents had a passion against litter and acted on their beliefs, during the week of April 21-28, over 1,384 volunteers city-wide scoured ditches, parks, and boulevards to pick up over 20,000 pounds of trash! The event will be ongoing with an increased effort to educate the public against littering in the first place.

Neighborhood Improvement of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:14:37 -0500

This Year’s Neighborhood Improvement award goes to Sheryl Irvin.

Sheryl managed to do all three phases of Crime Free Multi-Housing in one year. (That entails an eight hour classroom training session, premise survey and neighborhood meeting).

Through her diligance, she managed to get a block captain trained for all 16 floors of their apartment complex, hold several meeting a year with the Rochester Police Department and the tenant, get free cell phones for calling 911 in each apartment as needed, and to set up surveillance/security at the front door to keep out unwanted guests.

Neighborhood Crime Fighter of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:10:00 -0500

This year’s Neighborhood Crime Fighter of the Year winner is Sharon Durigan.

Sharon has been vigilant in cleaning up three problem rental units in her neighborhood watch area. She has dedicated hours to writing down license plate numbers; taking pictures; keeping in touch with the Rochester Police Department’s Narcotics Unit; Rochester Building Safety, when properties were not properly cared for; and her block captain, Randy Batzel. Sharon has also called landlords to get the involved in evicting tenants. With her hard work, she has kept drugs, problem tenants, and other crime out of her neighborhood.

Mayor's Neighbor/Neighborhood of the Year

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:57:54 -0500

Rene Lafflam, Executive Director, for RNeighbors, Rochester's Neighborhood Resource Center was surprised (almost speechless) by Mayor Brede announcing she was the winner of the Mayor's Neighbor of the Year. Here she's pictured reacting to the announcement, to the amusement of Darrel Hildebrandt and Mark Fink, from the National Night Out committee.

This award was presented for the community building work that RNeighbors has done in the past year. When Rene accepted the award, she noted that none of RNeighbors' successes would be possible without the dedication of each of the Neighborhood Ass