Recognizing People Who Make A Difference

One of the things Reston has done well over the years is to stop occasionally and recognize the men, women and youth among us who’ve made a difference through extraordinary efforts to help those needing a hand or to improve the Reston community. 

Actually, those objectives tend to go hand in hand.  I’ve come to realize that there are a lot more people in this “town” who deserve such recognition than actually receive it. 

The 2011 Best of Reston Awards gala and the smaller ceremony were the most recent examples of efforts to recognize deserving Restonians.

 The Citizen of the Year Award plaque hanging in the Reston Community Center now includes the name of Dave Edwards, a quiet hero who worked tirelessly over 35 years to make Reston a better place, one that lived up to its founding promise.  I could only wonder why his recognition as Reston Citizens Association’s Citizen of the Year was so long in coming.

The joint Reston Interfaith-Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce Gala combines a grander recognition ceremony with grand-scale fundraising focused on big money contributors—the Strategic Partners and Corporate Sponsors.

In these days of declining public funding for the vital human services, Reston Interfaith provides to those in desperate need in our region, such corporate fundraising has become this terrific organization’s life blood.

As I watched Best of Reston proceedings the other night, I sensed that the evening almost seemed to focus more on slavishly thanking corporate benefactors than recognizing the heroes. 

The glossy program given all attendees featured corporate logos and praise; speakers extolled their names again and again; Jumbotrons scrolled down the partners and sponsor names and logos all evening when short honoree videos weren’t playing; and, each honoree was accompanied to the stage by announced execs of, yep, the same corporations.  (In the past, for example, an awardee’s loved one or junior ROTC youth accompanied winners.  That seemed more appropriate, even touching, to this observer.)  No doubt the corporate generosity is worthy of note and applause, but it seems less worthy if overdone.

Still, the high-caliber awardees — like teacher Lindsay Trout of South Lakes High School for the inspiration she gives our youth; the Martin Luther King Foundation, whose scholarships help deserving youth afford college; Sandy Amato, who helps to feed so many; Beverly Cosham, the singing voice of Reston; and Patty Nicoson, for leadership of the developer-funded non-profit key to bringing rail to Reston — made it a scintillating evening stoking our Reston pride.

Recognition of such heroes is something I hope we do more of in the future.  In doing so, we should extend awards to even more individuals and groups genuinely deserving of community recognition and do so in an as inclusive a manner as possible to avoid the appearance of an exclusivity, or worse, an elitism not consistent with the character of Reston.