Vision 2020's Melvin Gateley awards announced, will be given out at Tuesday breakfast

Teresa Wildman says helping choose winners of the sixth annual Melvin Gateley Awards of Distinction "is amazing."

"Many people are humble and earnest in serving their neighbors and people in the community," she said. Most have never been recognized.

"We try to make that a criteria, that it's not someone who is in the paper every week or doing community service as a full-time job."

Still, she said, it seemed there was a "mass of people out there who do a lot of volunteer work and don't get a lot of recognition."

Wildman is a member of the city of Cape Girardeau's Vision 2020 Community Relations Council, which chooses honorees each year.

Vision 2020 was created in 2000 after a community survey. The survey also showed five key areas the city needed to concentrate on to create improvements by the year 2020. The five areas are arts, culture, and leisure; community services and enrichment; economic development; education; and transportation and infrastructure.

The Melvin Gateley Awards of Distinction are given out at an annual breakfast. This year's breakfast will be hosted Tuesday by Saint Francis Medical Center.

"This breakfast is about what's going right. It's very positive," Wildman said. Vision 2020 chairman Doug Austin "is very jovial and upbeat and he sets that tone" for the invitation-only breakfast.

Bill Barkley, chairman of the River Corridor Task Force and plant manager for Procter & Gamble, is the keynote speaker.

The Melvin Gateley Award of Distinction winners:

• Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, which connects people with disabilities to horses and horse-related activities.
• THRIVE (Teach, Hope, Reach, Involve, Value, Encourage) promotes character development for young people by creating links with educators, youth service providers, law enforcement and other government officials, faith leaders and other community members. THRIVE developed student advisory boards at Central Junior High and Jackson Junior High School. The teens will help plan 2008 activities.
• Pat King, a Cape Girardeau native, was galvanized when her 16-year-old daughter thought about dropping out of school. King, a dropout herself, went back to get her high school diploma and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in social work from Southeast Missouri State University. She continues living on the city's south side to help neighbors achieve their dreams. An employee and volunteer at the Family Resource Center, she handles the co-ed South Side Explorers and is a parent liaison for the United Way's LIFE initiative and day camp program.
• Ken Urhahn, a popular Cal Ripken league baseball coach, led his team to regional, state and national titles. He gave up three weeks of his family vacation time for the 10-year-old baseball players, who ultimately won the 2007 Cal Ripken Little League World Series in Indiana.
• Larry and Jean Underberg: volunteered to run Old Town Cape's Tunes at Twilight, the free concerts held over 12 weeks each summer at the Common Pleas Courthouse gazebo at Lorimier and Themis streets in Cape Girardeau. In addition to booking and promoting each artist, the Underbergs find housing for the musicians. They distribute fliers, bookmarks, maintain a Web site and act as master of ceremonies for the events. The 2008 season is booked. The couple does the work for free.
• Kaye Hood, R.N., moved to the city's south side 14 years ago. She has helped establish multiple ministries, including monthly activities such as arts and crafts for children, trash pick up and prayer walks. She is chairwoman of LOVE INC (Love In the Name of Christ), which brings Christian denominations to provide resources and support to disadvantaged families.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127