Presentation Speech for Dianne Muscarello and Nancy Tague, Glide First Citizen 2017
Presented by Nancy Kreger Glide First Citizen 2008

It usually starts with, "I’ve got an idea."

"Let’s fill the school with people reading to the kids on Read Across America day."

They coordinated with the school, recruited 90 volunteers, made a huge master schedule, and managed the day as readers came and went.

"I’ve got an idea – Let’s dress as Cats in the Hats for the day."

They dressed in black, with white gloves, long tails, painted-on whiskers, and red-and-white striped hats. The principal was overheard to say he’s never seen two adults have so much fun in school. This whole event was repeated 4 years in a row.

"I’ve got an idea – The wildflower show ought to have a guided walk where people can see the plants in the wild."

They had already collected for the show for years, so they knew their plants. They picked a trail, scouted which flowers were blooming, prepared a handout, and led the walk both days of the show. This year, they’ll repeat it for the 6th time. If you haven’t ever been on the walk, you really should go, I have and it was amazing.

"I’ve got an idea – Location maps on every wildflower label!"

If you’ve been to the wildflower show, you’ve seen the labels that show where each plant grows. The maps were available online, but it took computer magic to put them on the labels. They designed the new labels and over 3 years made more than 1000 new labels to replace the old ones. They continue to make dozens of new labels every year because names change and new plants are collected.

"I’ve got an idea – The community club should have a website."

"I’ve got an idea – Cajun food for the wildflower show kitchen!"

"I’ve got an idea – Glide needs to do First Citizen again."

This team of two dedicated volunteers work side by side on many activities in our community. They give us their imagination and great ideas, plus countless hours of hard work to make those ideas happen. Because they work together so well, and because so much of their work is behind the scenes, many people don’t realize the unique contributions each one makes. Tonight I hope to help you see their individual talents and activities.

I work closely with our first honoree on the Boy Scout’s Holiday Food and Gift program. She is on the steering committee and helps plan, organize, and fill boxes. But her special contribution is computer support. The program has grown from serving 54 households to about 230, and from 20 sponsors to over 100. I don’t know how we would handle that volume without her computer skills. This was another example of "I’ve got an idea." She created a computer program, and she enters all the information. When we need letters, lists, delivery slips, and counts, she cranks them out. It’s a huge behind-the-scenes job that requires many hours. I know this first hand because I am always bugging her for lists and more lists and changed lists.

She also contributes her computer skills to the wildflower show. With over 600 plants every year, huge volumes of data are a problem there too. She works with a computer program that captures what plants are collected where. She also provides the collectors with lists and tags for their specimens. For the show labels we talked about earlier, she makes sure the names are accurate and gets the maps off the internet. All this is in addition to leading the wildflower walk, collecting from Glide to Illahee Flats, helping with show set up, and in the last few years, also being an active member of the Wildflower Show Council, their governing board. Last year she took on being publicity coordinator, and has reorganized and managed all the show’s publicity efforts.

Her other unique contribution is her talent for writing. She writes articles and press releases for the wildflower show, letters for the food basket program, bylaws and policies and procedures for the community club.

In 2003, the community club was in danger of going under. She was part of a core group recruited to reorganize the club, write bylaws, and attain 501c3 status. Later, she helped rewrite some of the bylaws, and later still served on a committee that spent several years writing policies and procedures. You can guess who did the actual writing.

Back in 2005, she helped restart the community club’s scholarship program. She served on the Scholarship Committee for a dozen years, eventually chairing it. In one of those "I’ve got an idea!" moments, she revamped the scholarship application. It’s now an online form, which makes life easier for the students.

There’s not enough time to talk about everything she has done – volunteering as a teacher’s aide at the elementary school, helping run community club elections, working on forest service archeological digs, donating blood regularly, cooking jambalaya for the wildflower kitchen. I tried to estimate and add up hours of service, and it’s well in excess of 6,000 hours over the last twenty years.

She IS the consummate volunteer. When she volunteers for a project, it is always done well. She is able to figure things out and doesn’t stop till she does. I can’t express enough how dedicated this woman is to this community and the folks who live here.

And finally, I think we all can imagine how much work has been involved in making Glide First Citizen happen every year since 2006. She plans, organizes, watches the budget, invites the former first citizens, and types up the inside of the program. Until Dick took it away from her this year, she managed the nomination and selection process. Through her creativity and hard work, she has brought us all together to celebrate the volunteering that happens in this community. Through her work, 22 new First Citizens have been acknowledged and honored, as well as all our previous First Citizens. This year it is finally her turn. I cannot think of anyone more deserving. It is truly my honor to make this presentation tonight.

Please join me in recognizing and honoring Glide First Citizen 2017, Nancy Tague.

Our second honoree also has amazing computer skills. Her specialty is websites and photo editing. It was her idea that the community club should have a website – and also the wildflower show, the boy scout food program, and the Friends of the Library. She built and maintains those websites, which takes hundreds of hours.

Her involvement in the community club goes way beyond being webmaster. She was part of the core group that helped save the club in 2003 and helped rewrite bylaws and policies and procedures. Almost every year she has been election coordinator, and quite often she is a behind-the-scenes presence helping keep the peace.

Websites are more interesting when they have photos, so she photographs events and has amassed hundreds of photos. Every year after the Boy Scout food program, she creates a photo collage highlighting all the troop members and their hard work. The collages are really great – you can see the latest one on the Boy Scout page at glide community club dot org. Look out when she has a camera in her hand.

If you attended the 50th anniversary of Glide First Citizen in 2010, you saw the slide show that was part of the entertainment – Glide and its citizens through the years. That was her original idea and her work. And if you went to the Memorial Day Service in 2013, you saw the very moving slide show that had everyone close to tears. She has a real talent for combining pictures and music to create a work of art.

She also uses her photo editing skills to create posters. All the First Citizen posters are hers. She’s done posters for the Memorial Day Service, book sale posters for the Friends of the Library, and signs for the wildflower show.

For the wildflower labels, she photo-edits the maps and creates the layout with the text. She leads the wildflower walk, collects from Glide to Illahee Flats, helps with show set up, and in the last few years, serves on the Show Council. She’s the liaison with all the presenters, plus she arranges media advertising and coverage.

That’s her other unique talent -- publicity and community contact. For the Boy Scout food and gift program, she arranges newspaper publicity. This is in addition to serving on the steering committee, helping plan and organize the program, and filling boxes.

For First Citizen, in addition to planning and organizing, she’s the one who lines up entertainers, solicits donations in the community, contracts for tablecloths, napkins, food and cake, and gets progress reports from the other volunteers. Her computer skills created the outside of the program in front of you. And of course, she has become the voice of First Citizen, serving as our MC since 2011. When she talks about the importance and value of volunteering, I know she is speaking from her immensely huge heart and her personal experiences.

Once again, there’s not enough time to talk about everything she has done: Memorial Day steering committee, SMART reader, volunteer on archeological digs, blood donor, gumbo cook for the wildflower show kitchen, and more. Her volunteer hours are way over 6000 hours in the last 20 years.

She is one of the most committed people I know. She is dedicated and very willing to give of herself. At times, she puts the needs of others ahead of her own. A couple years ago, when she was fighting her own health battles, she still was doing the volunteer projects that mean so much to her, including standing up here as MC. That is what she is made of.

Tonight, we’re not letting her be MC for the rest of the evening. It’s her turn to be honored. Once again it is my honor to make this presentation as well. Please join me in recognizing and thanking Dianne Muscarello, Glide First Citizen 2017.