The annual Volunteer Recognition Ceremony was held on Wednesday, December 9. The ceremony included volunteer service award honorees, their families, and an excellent speech by Dr. Muttillo.
A recognition ceremony is exactly what it sounds like: an event held to recognize those in honor of a reward. In Dr. Muttillo’s speech he did just that: he recognized how inspiring students are. He explained that when he starts to think of excuses to not give back to the community, he thinks of the students who have been honored for doing just that. Dr. Muttillo ended the speech–like he does in most of his speeches–with a challenge for his students: “Look for the daily opportunity to serve others”. The challenge was a reminder for the students that they can volunteer and give back anywhere.
Once the ceremony began, each honoree was called and read what volunteer work they had done. The activities varied from tutoring to house building, which displayed the diversity of what Leesville students do to give back to their communities.
Noah Subasic, a Service Award Winner and attendee of the ceremony, said, “It was interesting to see what different people do to volunteer and how different people participate in their community”.
For the first time, the invitations were given with an RSVP system. All 162 award winners were invited and were told to answer if they were available to come and if so, how many guests they were going to bring. The new system ran smoothly, with every present honoree’s name being called.
The Volunteer Recognition Ceremony was, overall, a successful event. The highlight, however, were the students that spent so much time giving back to the community. Over 15,000 hours were volunteered by the award winners, an incredible achievement.
