{"id":81025,"date":"2017-05-22T09:26:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T13:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=81025"},"modified":"2017-05-21T18:32:54","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T22:32:54","slug":"canastota-volunteer-recognition-program-winds-up-second-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=81025","title":{"rendered":"Canastota Volunteer Recognition Program winds-up second year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CAAC President Pastor Dave Allen presents this year\u2019s grant to Wampsville VFD Chief Monty Collucci with firemen and Wampsville\u2019s new super-pumper in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grant checks were recently distributed to the four volunteer first-responder\u00a0organizations that serve greater Canastota\u00a0and were received with enthusiastic\u00a0appreciation by the officers of those companies.<\/p>\n

Following 35 years of recognizing fire and ambulance volunteers with a large public banquet, the Canastota Area Association of Churches – the event\u2019s sponsor – evolved the program in 2016 to keep up with changing times.<\/p>\n

In a vote of the CAAC Board last\u00a0year, annual \u201cCanastota Volunteer First Responders Award\u201d grants of $500 were established for each of the four Canastota area volunteer companies: the Canastota\u00a0VFD, Wampsville VFD, Lincoln VFD and the Greater Lenox Ambulance Service.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0money for these grants came from a special reserve fund left over from past years\u2019\u00a0fundraising, earmarked exclusively for volunteer recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach volunteer organization can use the funds for equipment, training, or any other purpose they deem important,\u201d CAAC President Pastor Dave Allen explains. At each presentation, CAAC representatives also took time to pray for the safety and\u00a0effectiveness of those volunteers as they go about their lifesaving duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Association of Churches believes in the value of these men and women and the\u00a0work they do; it deserves an expression of thanks,\u201d Recognition Chairman Scott Trefz\u00a0stated, \u201cbut changing times dictated this change in direction. We voted this year to renew fundraising among past contributors, and we were gratified by the response in contributions. Donation levels allowed us to extend the program another year through 2021, while also increasing the grants by 10 percent to $550 per organization.”<\/p>\n

Fundraising for\u00a0the 2018 grants will begin again in February of that year, with grants distributed in late April. Individuals and organizations interested in supporting this program can contact Trefz by mail at 2743 Perryville Road, Canastota, or by leaving a message at 315.655.9742.<\/p>\n

The CAAC Board is open to the possibility that a dinner or similar recognition could return, should there be sufficient interest and support going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant checks were recently distributed to the four volunteer first-responder\u00a0organizations that serve greater Canastota\u00a0and were received with enthusiastic\u00a0appreciation by the officers of those companies. Following 35 years of recognizing fire and ambulance volunteers with a large public banquet, the Canastota Area Association of Churches – the event\u2019s sponsor – evolved the program in 2016 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81026,"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":[3,29,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-religion","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-l4R","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/DSCN3843.jpg?fit=589%2C453&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81025","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=81025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}