Six outstanding women were honored with awards from the Women's Association at the Annual Meeting on April 20, 2016.
2016 Eleanor Award
This award was first presented in 1982 and named for a most dedicated volunteer, Eleanor Volonte, the Eleanor Award is the highest honor given by the Women’s Association to one of its members. It is given to the “Busy Bee’ who has distinguished herself in service to the Women’s Association and Morristown Medical Center. Fittingly, the recipient’s gift is a beautiful gold bee pin given with deep appreciation for dedication and service.
On right, Mary Courtemanche; President of WAMMC, presents Dannette Merchant
with the 2016 Eleanor Award.
This year’s “Busy Bee” award went to a woman who has been an active member of WAMMC since 1993 and joined the Township Twig in 1997. As a Twig member, she chaired Art Works 2005, their geranium sale and many other fundraisers and service projects and was an integral part of decorating ARI for the holidays. As a WAMMC Board member she chaired the Chapel Flowers, Mailing and Finance Committees. She was involved in seven Mansion in Mays beginning with Knox Hill in 1999 and ending as the Co-Chair of Glynallyn in 2012 which raised $1.3 million for the Nancy and Skippy Weinstein Inpatient Hospice and Palliative Care Center. During her Presidency we had our first Board retreat, she oversaw the creation of our Organizational Chart; refined our goals and helped to rewrite our Policy and Procedure manual; streamlined many WAMMC documents; saw to our storage problems whether they were physically in the shed behind ARI or digitally in the cloud with AHS IS Dept.; was instrumental in getting the WAMMC/Volunteer Wing renovated; encouraged the Board to “go Green” by always using the monitor in the Conference Room or morphing the printed Newsletter into the eVoice and oversaw the donation of $4.5 million to MMC. Therefore, for her many years of dedicated service, loyalty and always ‘contributing with passion’ to WAMMC, this year’s “Busy Bee” Award went to Dannette Merchant.
2016 Rookies of the Year
The Rookie of the Year award is for a newly active individual for significant contributions that greatly enhanced the organization’s success. This year the award was given to two very deserving women. The first Rookie of the Year award went to Gwynne Wade (pictured above) who has single handedly brought our Membership Committee and Membership sign up process into the 21st Century. The second Rookie of the Year award went to Karen Gold (pictured below, to the right) who is the treasurer of our Gift Shops and did an amazing job working with our new POS system.
2016 Catalyst of the Year
The Catalyst of the Year award is given to a member who has been active for any number of years for exceptional service on a project or in multiple positions. The winner of this award Co-Chaired the Honey Brunch, has been the By-Laws Co-Chair this year, is now Co-Chairing The Secret Garden Tour, will be Co-Chairing Mansion in May 2017 and has just been elected to the Executive Board. Katie Nolle is the Catalyst of the Year!
Leadership Development
Recognition for Leadership Development is presented to individuals or auxiliaries who have committed time and talents to the ongoing development of effective leadership. This year’s award went to Nancy Alfano (above) and Tina Mulhare (below on left) for their tireless efforts with Long Range Planning, our new Organizational Chart and their desire to see the WAMMC Board operate on a higher more professional level.
