Siblings, the 9th annual Spring Salute Awards reception was a huge success with our largest crowd to date. Our wonderful committee came together and worked their magic to transform the Mare Island Museum into the wonderful space for our celebration. Mark Lampkin from "Vallejo is Back" was on hand to video the event and here is the link to his final version. We will also provide the photos from the event very soon.
We want to extend our special thanks to Congressman Mike Thompson who has attended every Spring Salute and Labor Day celebration for the last ten years and who remains on stage every year to honor our award winners. He was joined again this year by Senator Bill Dodd and Assemblymember Tim Grayson to make all of the winners feel extra special. A resolution was also presented by their offices as well as Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry who was in attendance but had to leave early due to family obligations.
It takes a village to put on such a large event, especially when it is all volunteer and Prez G Anthony Phillips worked for weeks getting the program and sound system organized and was the last to leave.Fred Davenport, well, what can we say about our Sib. He was first on scene Thursday and Friday and stayed until the end tearing down.Shirley Herbert, she did not come on board until two weeks ago but if not for her it would have all fell apart. We welcome your return to the family and could not have done it without you! Fred, Dustin and Jim from the Teamsters, Brad Meyer, Marcus Helmer and Lucia, G Anthony and of course Joyce Giles from the museum who stayed to the bitter end putting away the tables and hundreds of chairs and bringing the museum back to the way we found it. Jeff Toynbee and Firefighters #1186 who provided the great Tri-Tip and Chicken. They once again came through in a pince and made it all look easy. May and Shukimba who made sure everyone was checked in and welcomed.And of course Jennifer, Carolyn, and Steve from CTA who showed up early to help Pati and Shirley set up, decorate and keep us moving forward. The sides were provided by Catering By Ray and he and his lovely wife were on hand all evening to help serve.And of course a truly special thank you to the Siblings who were our award winners, especially Ben Espinoza, our Lou Franchimon Lifetime Acheivement Award and the 21 other. And then their were the crowd of our Labor Siblings, Elected officials and Community Leaders who showed up to make the evening a huge success!
