100-Year Association Awards
Cite 15 Who 'Make Difference'

By REUVEN BLAU

A Police Officer dedicated to helping her colleagues, an innovative public records officer, and a Correction Officer with a mastery of computers topped this year's list of Hundred Year Association recipients.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow A HELPING HAND: Mayor Bloomberg honors Police Officer Anita Jackson with the $6,000 Isaac Liberman Public Service Award for her volunteer work for the Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance at a Dec. 20 ceremony at 1 Police Plaza.

In all, the association gave $63,000 in awards and college scholarships to career civil servants and children of city employees at a Dec. 20 ceremony held at 1 Police Plaza.

Helps Cops With Stress

Police Officer Anita Jackson received $6,000 and the top Isaac Liberman Public Service Award for her volunteer work for the Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance (POPPA).

"I personally knew one female officer that committed suicide on the job," Officer Jackson said just before accepting her award from Mayor Bloomberg. "So I felt drawn to POPPA to try and do whatever I could to help my fellow officers handle and deal with stress."

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'A BORN HEALTH EDUCATOR': Harriet Stollman, the Department for the Aging official who derives particular satisfaction from watching senior citizens 'blossom' after she trains them to lead health-promotion programs, received a 100-Year Association Award from this newspaper's publisher, Edward B. Prial.

She said joining the NYPD 20 years ago was not an easy decision. "Because I had that television idea that police work was extremely dangerous," she recalled. "But I did a little research and found out that most police work [involves] serving the community and helping people."

Her award was sponsored by Consolidated Edison. Ms. Jackson works at the Housing Police Service Area 9 in Queens, which encompasses 15 city Housing Authority developments from Long Island City to Jamaica.

An Escort for Seniors

She has also has spent countless hours escorting seniors to banks and post offices. "They are targeted as easy prey for criminals," she said. "[Escorts are] something that the Police Department offers, but a lot of precincts don't do."

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow UNEXPECTED STAFFING GURU: Correction Officer Miguel Colon was cited for developing computer programs that allow his agency to better gauge its vacancy rate and overtime costs while making performance statistics easier to comprehend. He marvels that he has been able to serve the agency in a job that doesn't involve 'minding the inmates.'

Fourteen other city employees received awards at the ceremony ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. "These 15 men and women really make a difference," Mayor Bloomberg told the crowd. "They are everyday heroes."

Iris Allen, a Principal Administrative Associate III for the Department of Homeless Services, was honored for her work coordinating responses to requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Law.

She received the $5,000 Ralph K. Smith Public Service Award for her innovative approach to breaking down complicated requests and creating checklists to help the agencies involved in responding. In addition, Ms. Allen has donated original artwork to help raise money for the department's homeless fund and worked with homeless children to create a craft project.

The Isaac Liberman Public Service Awards have been given since 1958 to recognize the civic contributions of career civil servants at work and off the job. They are named for the department store executive who founded the Hundred Year Association in 1927.

The awards symbolize the public-private partnership between the city and the members of the association, which is made up of more than 200 businesses and non-profit organizations that have existed in the city for at least a century.

Keeps Seniors Healthy

THE CHIEF-LEADER, founded in 1897, is a member of the association and sponsored an individual award.

Harriet Stollman, the Director of Health Promotion Services for the Department for the Aging, received the $2,500 award sponsored by this newspaper. She makes presentations on various health programs for seniors, including the Stay Well exercise program, the Alert and Alive discussion group, and the Partner to Partner support group.

"I always loved working with seniors," she said last week. "And I love training seniors to lead health promotion programs - to see them blossom."

Ms. Stollman oversees a roster of 850 volunteers citywide, who are trained to lead health programs at their own senior centers and other sites. "I give them skills," she remarked, referring to the seniors.

The 13-year department veteran said she recently sat in a restaurant where she had eaten 32 years ago. "And I said to myself, 'Harriet, where would you like to be?''' she recalled. "I couldn't think of any other place. I'm a born health educator."

Veteran Correction Officer Miguel Colon was honored for his computer work helping the department project vacancies, overtime costs, and other complicated matters. "I started teaching myself with books," he recalled. "One of the Wardens took notice."

He has transformed reams of department performance statistics into understandable charts and graphs, and has also led power-point presentations for top department officials, including Correction Commissioner Martin F. Horn.

"I never dreamed I'd be doing that," Mr. Colon remarked. "I thought I'd be in a jail minding the inmates."

Not Ready to Retire

After a 19-year career in the department, Officer Colon said he isn't eager to retire. "I'm eligible to retire in May of next year," he noted. "But right now I feel so comfortable with the people I'm working with, I may stick it out for a little longer."

He received the $1,000 Okin Family/Rose J. Gilman Award. "I feel very honored that I was even nominated," he said. "The fact that I won it, I'm ecstatic."

The scholarship awards included the inaugural Dr. Howard A. Stark Pre-Med Student College Scholar Award. The $1,000 award is named in memory of Finance Commissioner Martha Stark's father, a Brooklyn physician who recently passed away.

The other top $1,000 Isaac Liberman Public Service Award winners, their assigned agency, and the award sponsors are:

Patrick Beath, Civilian Complaint Review Board, Brooklyn Bar Association Foundation, Inc.; Patrick Cimino, Housing Authority, Rosenwach Tank Co.; Richard Dyner, New York City Transit, John Gallin & Sons, Inc.; Edward Eng, Department of Small Business Services, Hagedorn & Company; Robert Eusebio, Department of Probation, Brooklyn Bar Association Foundation, Inc.; Donna Hess, Human Resources Administration, Leys, Christie & Co., Inc.; Lofton Johnson, Parks Department, Modell's Sporting Goods, Inc.; Cecil Louison, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Henry W.T. Mali & Company; Sarah Ng, HRA, New York University; Levada Rice, Department of Sanitation, The Hundred Year Association of New York; Alfred Tumielewicz, NYPD, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker.