Travis County Commissioners Court
December 16, 2008
Item 3
Item number 3 is to receive status report and issue final request for contributions to the Travis County 2009 combined charities campaign. Ms. Dana debeauvoir and company?
>> good morning, judge Biscoe. Thank you very much. We're here to wrap up the efforts of Travis County to try to raise money for many hundreds of our 501(c)3 charities that are in desperate need right now. I accidentally got involved in this process of operating combined charities and I have to say it has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. So if I had not had really good help, we probably wouldn't have done as well because while we were raising money for all of our charities, my office and I were conducting the November presidential election. So both whammies at once was a bit once. When we talked about that kind of work schedule, the other members of my team stepped forward and said they would help pick up the slack when that happened, so thank you to greg ham I will son and thank you to Sam Biscoe for stepping in and you picked up the slack for me. Our theme this year was the heart of Travis County. And so what we would like to do is recognize some of our true hearts in Travis County. There were 618 contributors to this combined charities effort for 2008. The grand total of the money that we've raised right now I cannot give you a final final because the money is still coming in. It started coming in in heart warming amounts over the weekend, and we are still counting money. But as of today, wait for it, drum roll, the amount of money that Travis County combined charities for 2008 has raised is $188,598.51. Thank you.
>> [ applause ] that's a lot of money going to a lot of good causes.
>> that was the cents on that? 51 cents.
>> listen, I've got 49 cents.
>> [ laughter ] we're going to make it -- I've already given, but the 49 cents, we're going to get rid of the cents and get it zero zero and make it a dollar. We're going to get you 49 cents.
>> can we make a it a buck 49.
>> you got it. You put that on top of what we've already contributed.
>> thank you.
>> [ laughter ]
>> we obviously cannot thank all 600 people here today, but there are a few key people that I would like to let them know how much they have been appreciated and how much they've done. For example, pedro (indiscernible) was the dj at the fall festival. Debra gallonaway is the one who led the sheriff's honor guard to the fall festival and they were there at the tournament too. Kim orst sang beautifully the star spank he willed anthem at the fall festival and captain art cardenas was a wonderful emcee for the event. Fred tovar practically built the fall festival. And cindy in my office for all of her hard work in helping with the haunted jail and other duties as assigned. Maria and raul got into the act because they went out and raised an extra thousand dollars from Friday night lights. So it was fun to have that money coming in. And we thank them for their extra effort. Before I go on to thank just a few more people who were really, really, really helpful, I'd like to make the announcement of who won the softball tournament.
>> all right.
>> the eighth annual employees softball tournament, the third place winner, we are proud to announce, was the deputy dawgs from the county clerk's office. The second place winner was the total control from the sheriff's office.
>> [ laughter ]
>> [ applause ] and the really big winner, the first place champions of the softball tournament were the rebels from facilities management.
>> [ applause ] go rebels. A few more people who have taken extra time out of their schedule to help with this project and were always there and shared their enthusiasm and they were just really key people in getting things done, I'd like to recognize a few people for heartbeat award. Gerald Daugherty, see celia burke and charles vaughn. Gerald, we have our heartbeat award certificate and we would like to while you're at the dais give you that. And cecelia and charles if you're here, we have them over here at the side table for you.
>> does that mean they gave one dhar?
>> at least. They did a bunch of extra work. All right. Now we also did something new this year with the video. We used Travis County's intranet to try to reach every individual employee because asking them even for three to five dollars a pay period has turned out to be a real bonus for us this year and there were folks who were absolute oscar winning stars on this video that asked for money and supported particular charity. Our stars are sheriff greg hamilton, steven broburg, sylvia lopez. David ferris and Sam the dog. Ollie pope. Bruce elfant. Gloria al man. Jim barr. Mary swanson, leroy nellis, melissa boit. Judy pittsburgh. Sam Biscoe. Y'all looked fabulous on that.
>> [ applause ]
>> I just need to say this. I deserve some credit for getting up very, very early in the morning on that softball tournament to get out there at 8:00 to throw out the first pitch.
>> you are exactly right.
>> I was on time.
>> I fort got that you threw out the first pitch that very early morning. And you know that simply because you were there, that's how come that particular event raised over $1,200. Good work, judge. And thanks for throwing the pitch. You're probably as good at that as you are golf. Gerald has seen me pitch. I throw like a girl. There are some backbone people who we would like to ask if you are here, please come forward. Come to the side of the room and we will be happy to give you your certificate. The people who served as coordinators for this event, let me quickly go through and thank them because they did a whole lot of work behind the scenes. They were the ones that worked this everyday. Made sure the forms were in the right place. Thank you to ted likey. Sue expires, norma gonzalez, cynthia rodriguez, sharon coleman, bob van, lee stewart. Loy taylor. Theresa golf and roxanne in a ortega heart. James smith and sinty bow happen nan. Stephanie williams and rachel castro. Don co-var. David salazar. Kimberly jamail. Christine nelson and chuck watt. Rob. E brown. Cindy mueller, gloria allah man. Marina sanchez. Terry esquivel. Clint alexander. Thank y'all very much for serving as coordinators. Those in the leadership round table gave one thousand dollars or more, many of them more for this particular fund-raising. Quickly we're going to thank them. (reading list) please help me thank these folks.
>> [ applause ]
>> would that be the thousand people that I signed certificates for yesterday?
>> indeed, judge. We have -- you and I have been able to provide that moment where we signed that certificate where we permanently thanked that person. Now you and I get to do it publicly.
>> it was an original signature, by the way.
>> indeed. The judge stayed late to do the certificates for all of you, so I hope you appreciate that hand signature. I'm sure it will be valuable on e-bay one day.
>> [ laughter ]
>> very quickly there, 17 offices who had a best year ever. They really rose to the occasion this time. On top of the list, the county judge's office.
>> [ applause ] the county treasurer, planning and budget, its, facilities management, the county attorney, the county clerk, all of the criminal -- county court at law and district courts, the district attorney, probate court, jp 3, jp 4 and jp 5, constable 4, constable 5, ces and tnr. They deserve our thanks.
>> [ applause ] as we give away -- we do have awards today, people who have received a certificate of thanks, but we also have a token gift for those who really went out of their way and did a lot of extra labor to make this 188,000-dollar project a success. Our big heart awards go to offices where between 50% -- at least 50% and up to 99% of their people were involved in the campaign. The big heart awards go to our brand new robie rodes and yolanda ruiz from planning and budget. (indiscernible) from constable precinct 5. Dan any hobby and don kovar from emergency services. Danny, are you still here? Criminal justice planning, roger jeffreys and christie vargas. Thanks to those offices.
>> [ applause ]
>> we want to give the whole hearted awards for the offices where their employees and the head of that office all participated at 100%. That is a lot of heart coming from one office. To thank them, the following artists have made some of their artwork valuable and we're going to be gifting it to people who have raised the most money. The artists are local from Austin Texas and they are diana sidel, carol hersh and jim hernandez. Please help me thank the artists.
>> [ applause ] for the whole hearted award there are five of you. Tops on the list, county judge Sam Biscoe. You get a whole hearted certificate of appreciation and our ceramic heart.
>> I'll share it with my staff. Thank you.
>> and Commissioner Ron Davis for being so loving, a whole hearted award to you and your staff in precinct 1. Clap dlap clap dlap
>> [ applause ]
>> another 100% office, probate judge guy herman. He gets our whole hearted with a ceramic heart. Justice of the peace precinct 4, raul gonzalez, thank you for 100% office. And last but not least, we have with us another one of our 100 percenters, justice of the peace precinct 5. Let's thank them. We so appreciate your whole hearted efforts. All right. We also have two sweetheart awards, people who were just so darling through this whole thing that we have to recognize them especially. For the most creative fund-raiser, the sweetheart award goes to its for their photo booth at the fall festival. Joe harlow, would you like to accept it on behalf?
>> [ applause ] the second sweetheart award goes for the most creative donation. Our sweetheart is steven broburg for doing all of the artwork for the festival, including the giant painting. Thank you.
>> [ applause ] we appreciate you, sweetheart. Now we'd like to present heart and soul awards. People who have this most extraordinary gift of spirit they got everybody enthiewsed, they worked day in and day out and they were always just so happy to be going out asking people for money. They just did a terrific job. A heart and soul award goes to gio (indiscernible). Thank you for your ability to inspire others. A heart of heart awards. We could not have conducted this campaign without a great deal of help as I mentioned while we were in the process of doing a November presidential election, but we had offices who really stepped in and raised a lot of money that is going to go directly to these very needy charities. We would like to recognize with our heart of heart awards the its department, joe harlow, russell hawn, see seal, susan who put together that beautiful website. Thank you very much for the website.
>> [ applause ] and heart of heart award also goes to our county records management director steven broburg with others who did all of the video. They did the printing, they did the distribution. It was such a big ifort in helping us be successful in this fund-raiser. So our heart to your heart.
>> [ applause ] all right. The following winners are what we would consider big winners. Queu them -- without them this would not have been possible. One of our heart of gold acards is county treasurer dolores ortega carter. Rhonda am bureaucracy and carolyn ca roscoe for processing all that money.
>> [ applause ] to another heart of heart -- heart of gold winner award goes to ces director carol clark holdburn and theresa golf. They organized the fall festival silent auction. They just made that silent auction happen. And they should also be commendd for teaching everybody the thriller dance, so now we can dance as will well as michael jackson. Thanks for the silent auction.
>> [ applause ] and thanks for the thrills. All right. Heart of gold award to tnr executive manager joe gieselman and his winners for helping with the fall festival. For sydney, she did the pepper sign, so thank you for the pepper sign and we don't know how to record it when we go over our limit because we are at $188,000 raised. Sierra, we appreciate you so much that we are also making sure that you receive an ipod. Thank you for constantly working on this project. So heart of gold to tnr.
>> [ applause ] and finally, our last heart of gold winner goes to sheriff greg hamilton. And the two people on his staff, josie and maria. Josie, maria, we have ipods for you because without you, the fall festival and al ca travis would never have happened. I think there were times you thought it was never going to happen, but you did a great job and heart of gold to the sheriff and the work they did.
>> [ applause ] we have just a couple of people left. I am moving very quickly to thank all these hard working folks. We have a very special grand prize award that we would like to offer to a person who was always there whenever I dialed his cell phone that make sure that we were operating this charity correctly, that we were dotting all our I's and dotting the t's, keeping the Commissioners court fully informed. Any time I needed any legal help, any kind of advice about who to ask and when to ask and thousand ask in a way that was representful and yet -- that was respectful and yet successful, we have none other to thank than david escamilla. What we would like to do, david, is we would like to present you and shantelle with awards. Shantelle you are receiving an ipod for being his messenger and fleet of foot pony express to get information to him. We so appreciate all the help. And david escamilla, would you please accept from us the lion hearted award. This is the grand prize that goes to the one person who did the most to make this particular charity successful. As I said, combined charities for 2008 for Travis County $188,000 raised and still counting. Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you, judge for all the time and this beautiful vase that was done by one of our artists. This is the grand prize going to our lion hearted award winner, david escamilla. Thank you for the time.
>> thank you.
>> [ applause ] did he nis, michael, -- did he nice, michael, would you stand up for a second? I couldn't have done it without them. Thank you. It's been my honor to. As we promised we will be carrying this forward next year and then we'll be looking for someone else to do even more work.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 1:45 PM