18 Model City Employees See Efforts Recognized; 100-Year Association Awards

Reading Valerie Wilson's resume, one might doubt such a model civil servant could be real — a 15-year veteran of the NYPD, who works with troubled youths in Canarsie schools as her day job while volunteering at a summer camp for blind children, organizing food drives for homeless shelters and escorting senior citizens to the bank in her time off.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James A COP WHO CAN CONNECT WITH KIDS: Police Officer Valerie Wilson, who works with troubled kids in Brooklyn while also volunteering at a summer camp for blind children, receives her 100 Year Association Public Service Award from this newspaper's publisher, Edward B. Prial.

But Police Officer Wilson, who allows that her work "can be tough at times," is just one of many outstanding civil servants who were honored at the annual Public Service Awards of the Hundred Year Association Dec. 16.

Even Bad Kids Worth Helping

"I go and I visit schools, and make sure everything's OK in the schools, and I also do mediations in the schools," she said following the ceremonies. "If the kid has a problem, I'll make arrangements with the parents of the victim and the parents of the juvenile who committed the crime, and I try and resolve the problem. I love it ... you're dealing with a lot of kids, and those kids are bad. But I really truly love working with them, and I'm thinking about when I retire, trying to do something with the kids. Like a non-profit organization, a youth center for the kids, or even for the elderly."

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James BUILDING PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZENS: School Safety Agent Terese Nemley, who helps young people learn about careers in public service while engaging them in activities that improve the quality of life here, is congratulated by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly after being given the top honor of the 100 Year Association and an accompanying $6,000 check.

 

 

 

Ms. Wilson also visits troubled youths at their homes, offering them positive alternatives such as the NYPD's Law Enforcement Explorers Program, or the Fresh Air Fund, which provides free summer camp experiences for children. She was awarded $3,500 by this newspaper, one of the members of the organization made up of city businesses and companies that have operated in the city for more than 100 years. Mayor Bloomberg earlier praised the city's civil servants as "the best workforce that anyone has ever put together."

The top award-winner was Terese Nemley, a School Safety Agent in the NYPD who also works with the Law Enforcement Explorers Program in South Queens. She received an award of $6,000 from Con Edison for her work helping children ages 10 to 20 learn about careers in law enforcement and public service, and organizing community events with them such as graffiti clean-ups, soup kitchens, coat and toy drives, and park beautification activities.

Work Tough But Fulfilling

"It's very tough. I always had a great group of kids, I've been doing it for quite a few years now, and I've always kept large numbers," the 31-year NYPD veteran said. "You'd never think that you'd have so many positive kids, that are looking to do positively. And when you're able to give them that hand, show them to the direction, it's a great thing." She admitted that the work was tough, but rewarding. "When I first started, it seemed hard but you learned a lot with them, and as you grow you're able to work with them, and know what their needs are and their wants are," she said. "I'm not looking to retire anytime soon. Not anytime soon."

In all, 18 civil servants were given awards, as well as 23 children of civil servants in college who were given scholarship grants. Other winners included Michael Cleary, a Detective working in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, who is well-known in the neighborhood for his close relationship with the community, who received $5,000 from the Hundred Year Association itself, and Cardinal Tony Brogdon, a Real Property Manager for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, who manages city-owned residential property and works with agencies to remove drug dealers and squatters from crime-infested buildings, who received $2,000 from Henry W.T. Mali and Company.

The Hundred Year Association, which was founded in 1927, has given out more than $1.5 million since it began its award program. Recipients are civil service employees whose salaries do not exceed $73,000 per year.

'Workers Make City Special'

Mr. Bloomberg remarked, "People around the world always ask me, 'What's different about New York?' And I think it's the 300,000 employees that work for the city. It is a city where you are more in charge of your own destiny than anyplace else. If you want to be successful, this is the city, and if you just want to get along, you get along."

With the awards being held at NYPD Headquarters, Mr. Bloomberg took particular care to honor his host. "The Police Department is as good an example of a city agency as any ... I think it's safe to say that community-police relations are better than they have ever been, and better than they are anyplace else worldwide," he said. "The diversity of our police force really does represent this city. It's a mirror image of the city; that's one of the reasons why it works so well ... You can take that and go right through every single city agency. What we've done is really quite amazing."

The Mayor, who was honored himself by the Hundred Year Association in November, also paid tribute to another longstanding institution in his life. "You're getting a new member in two and a half weeks. That is my mother, whose 100th birthday is on Jan. 2nd," he said. "As Mayor, I have a lot of powers, and one of the things I apparently have the power to do is to make her an honorary member of the 100-Year Association. So I'm doing it right now."

Other Winners

The other award winners were Principal Administrative Associate Deloris Buffaloe, who received $2,500; and Geographic Information System Analyst Gregory Albukh, Correction Officer Tafaun Boyd, Center Director Jennifer Carroll, Park Supervisor Louis Darakis, Construction Project Manager Willem DeRonde, Senior Budget Analyst Narda Fernandez, Principal Community Liaison Worker Carlos Infante, Associate Program Officer Helen Jenkins, Principal Community Liaison Worker Darnley Jones, Associate Juvenile Counselor Nathan Kalmanson, CUNY Office Assistant Kathleen Klemm, Housing Development Specialist Edwin Lugo and Administrative Manager Edward Yood, all of whom received $1,000.

The College Scholar Award recipients were Ashley Barronette, Tiffani Branch, Arielle Maugé, Maya Barsky, Riddhi Doshi, Haris Bhatti, Michele Braunstein, Jordan Glassberg, Lea Peters, Peter Cabrera, Igor Eyzner, Scott Gordon, Andrew Guinan, Elizabeth Hayden, Jennifer Jen, Arun John, Marilyn Kattuputhusseril, Eunice Kim, Ilona Lazis, Christopher Nelson, Sayantan Niyogi, Yanelly Santos and Harrison Wong.