{"id":70643,"date":"2016-07-05T11:53:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T15:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=70643"},"modified":"2016-07-04T19:58:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T23:58:04","slug":"american-heart-association-pays-tribute-to-dedicated-volunteers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=70643","title":{"rendered":"American Heart Association Pays Tribute to Dedicated Volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"american-heart-logo-black\"<\/a>Awards ceremony recognizes community including \u201cVolunteer of the Year\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n

The Greater Utica Division of the American Heart\u00a0Association\/American Stroke Association (AHA\/ASA) honored 22 individuals and organizations\u00a0at its annual Leadership Volunteer Awards Ceremony Friday morning. All of the award\u00a0recipients have played a crucial role in helping the American Heart Association\/American Stroke\u00a0Association improve the health of the Greater Utica area community. These volunteers,\u00a0companies, and local leaders help emphasize that \u201clife is why\u201d we do our important work.<\/p>\n

Some of the top awards include the Distinguished Service Award, given to Robin Carney, and\u00a0the Distinguished Leadership Award, given to Denise Flihan. Carney was honored for her work\u00a0as the chairperson of the Hospitality and Volunteer Committee at. America\u2019s Greatest Heart Run\u00a0& Walk. Flihan was recognized for her service with the Go Red For Women Luncheon since its\u00a0inception 14 years ago.<\/p>\n

The Heart Survivor of the Year were also honored during the ceremony. Heart survivor Jim\u00a0Stasaitis has been volunteering with the event for decades, but this year it had a special\u00a0meaning for him. Last fall, he had a heart attack. Within weeks, Stasaitis was sharing his story to help remind everyone why Heart Weekend is so important. He says without America\u2019s\u00a0Greatest Heart Run &amp; Walk, he would have had his heart attack at home \u2013 all alone \u2013 instead of\u00a0at the hospital because he knew to get the symptoms checked out. Stasaitis told all the walkers,\u00a0runners, and volunteers, \u201cYou saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Heart Association\/American Stroke Association is also proud to honor Volunteer\u00a0of the Year Steve Gassner. Gassner has served on the AHA\/ASA advisory board for three\u00a0years. He has fulfilled many roles, including chairman of the Heart Telethon, and serving on\u00a0both the Stewardship and Leadership Development Committees. Gassner finishes his two-year\u00a0term as advisory board president at the end of June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout our volunteers, the work the American Heart Association\/American Stroke Association\u00a0does in our community would not be possible,\u201d said Executive Director Jennifer Balog. \u201cWe want\u00a0to sincerely thank all of our volunteers for the hard work they do all year round.\u201d<\/p>\n

A full list of award recipients is below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Awards ceremony recognizes community including \u201cVolunteer of the Year\u201d The Greater Utica Division of the American Heart\u00a0Association\/American Stroke Association (AHA\/ASA) honored 22 individuals and organizations\u00a0at its annual Leadership Volunteer Awards Ceremony Friday morning. All of the award\u00a0recipients have played a crucial role in helping the American Heart Association\/American Stroke\u00a0Association improve the health of the Greater […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-inp","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/american-heart-logo-black.jpg?fit=512%2C482&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}