Chamber honors many of Oakley's best

February 20, 2004

There are so many people in Oakley who get passed by in the thanks department. They give and give and before you know it they are gone and we have forgotten to give them thanks for what they do.

That wasn't the case this weekend when the Oakley Chamber of Commerce presented its Citizen of the Year award night. While other cities honor just one Citizen of the Year at their annual banquets, the Oakley Chamber takes it a little bit farther and also provides a Volunteer of the Year award, Businessperson of the Year award and a Lifetime Achievement award.

The idea, according to Alice Posin, Citizen of the Year coordinator, is to honor as many people as possible, especially with so many deserving volunteers. Case in point are a lovely couple that live on Teakwood Drive. Their names are Al and Tessie Dunmore. Al is an elder at the Live Oak Community Church here in Oakley. He and Tessie are very active in their church and serve as coordinators for their outreach ministry. They wanted to do something good for the community so they decided to contact the Loaves and Fishes organization in Pittsburg and see what it would take to bring such a program to Oakley.

This was just part of the reason why they were honored with Oakley's Volunteer of the Year awards. Or should that be volunteers of the year? Several couples were nominated for the award this year and all were honored at the banquet. The Dunmores were chosen by a group of out-of-town selectors who found that their dedication to their community and the homeless has been outstanding.

"We're both retired and volunteering is important to us," said Al Dunmore at the banquet. "We just follow along where God leads us and usually it's helping other people."

Al is retired from the Navy after 46 years of service. Aside from being a wife and mother of seven and grandmother of 15, Tessie is retired from Avis Car Rental company. But even during the time that the couple worked and raised their family they have always volunteered to help the homeless, by making sure they have a good meal and a warm place to sleep.

St. Anthony's Church has taken over the Loves and Fishes program, but that hasn't stopped the couple from still feeding people. Recently they have turned their attention to the Meals on Wheels program and continue their outreach through Live Oak Church.

Also honored at the dinner was Bev Novarina. She was given the Lifetime Achievement award. Many will remember Novarina as the main influence behind the Oakley Library's move to Freedom High School. She was a librarian at the old location, before retiring and working for the Friends of the Library group. She is also a former member of the now defunct Woman's Club and severed on many other organizations during her time in Oakley. Recently, Delta Vista Middle School renamed its library the Bev Novarina Library in honor of all her services to the community.

The new Businessperson of the Year is Yvonne Fee. She is the owner of By Yvonne in Oakley. She also lives in Oakley with her husband Bill and her two children. She is very active in her children's activities including both Girl and Boy Scouts. She was honored for all of her contributions to the community through the groups her children participate in and more.

All of the award winners, including Oakley's new Citizen of the Year, Wendy Robertson, were honored with a banquet at the Flor do Oakley Hall on Valentine's Day. The evening included dinner, awards, a casino and a lot of well wishing and hope that this coming year there will be more volunteers to make Oakley the best it can be.

Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.

Distributed by the Contra Costa Times

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