State Of The City Recognizes National Award, Honors Volunteers

By Nicol Jenkins
Editor

Coral Springs Mayor Scott Brook and city leaders recently walked the red carpet and received much applause for the city’s year-long accomplishments.

Although the scene could be compared to the Academy Awards, city leaders and volunteers celebrated a different kind of accomplishment at the State of the City 2007 celebration.

The buzz surrounded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a Presidential honor that recognizes U.S. companies for organizational performance excellence. The City of Coral Springs is the first local government in the nation to receive this coveted award.

“Tonight was a celebration of a 14-year journey to performance excellence,” said City Manager Mike Levinson. “We’re proud to be the recipient of our nation’s most coveted business award. And we’re even prouder of the improvements we’ve made and the results we’ve attained to merit this award. This is a great evening for Coral Springs and the best is yet to come.”

Besides honoring those who made the national award possible, the city showed movies on its many programs and accomplishments including: adding diversity programs, having an A rated charter school, increasing teen involvement, public art programs, and road improvements, among others. About 500 volunteers and 25 committees were also recognized.

For about 14 years, the city has held the recognition event, according to Levinson. Typically, the celebration is a sit-down dinner but with budget cuts city officials decided to scale down the gala to appetizers and drinks.

“It’s for the community to share in the city’s success, and I enjoyed this event more because I got to thank everyone personally,” said Mayor Brook.

“We held this event to show our appreciation to our volunteers for all they do and for making us a community of excellence,” Levinson added.

Lois Springer and Zelda Becht have been volunteering at City Hall at the Mall for over 10 years.
“We’re worth millions to them” said Becht.

Springer added, “And we get to work with the greatest people.”

Mayor Brook said this year’s State of the City was even more celebratory because of the national recognition and teen outreach programs such as the teen car club and teen political forum. 

“Connecting with teens in the community is essential. A teen’s world today is much different from when our Commission grew up,” said Brook. “We need to involve our communities in the welfare of teens.”