Living Treasures for 2006
At the 2006 Satir Conference we honored four
individuals as Living Treasures. Virginia Satir established several
years ago the Living Treasure Award to honor an Avantan (or Avantans) who
had made a significant contribution to the Avanta organization and to its
mission. The honor may be granted annually with the recipients selected by the
Board of Directors from nominations sent to the President from the
membership.
To mark the occasion of Virginia Satir's 90th Birthday, the Board decided to honor four Avanta Members as Living Treasures. They were: Connie Lundgren, Hilda Richards, Bob Spitzer and Gloria Taylor.
Although the Living Treasure is in a way an Avanta Annual Meeting function, it was decided to have the celebrations at different times throughout the Conference and within the theme of the Conference and Annual Meeting, recognizing, however, that each has contributed more than this. It was also decided to have a different format than in the past. Therefore, each celebration consisted of the following: from 5:30pm to 6pm a time for ceremony of giving the medal and a book of letters, and then having some speakers to honor the recipient. The celebration then continued with a meal where a head table (with a table cloth and napkins) was set aside for the Living Treasure and nine of his/her friends and/or family members. In each celebration, Jean McLendon, as Avanta President, presented the medal and the book.
The special days were:
Wednesday, August 9, was for Bob Spitzer, in connection with the beginning of the Conference and his work with Virginia at the beginning of her professional life and her publications. John Banmen was the emcee for Bob's celebration. There were several of Bob's friends present as well as his wife, Becky.
Thursday, August 10, was for Gloria Taylor and in connection with the Institutes as on Thursday there was also a meeting of the Institutes. Sandy Novak, who sent the letter of nomination, was the emcee. Besides Avanta friends, Gloria's son, Marty and his wife Michelle, were present. Marty read a note from Gloria's daughter, Dawne as well. They also brought a beautiful display of pictures of Gloria's life on a poster.
Saturday, August 12, was for Connie Lundgren, in connection with the beginning of the Annual Meeting and in honor of all of her work as an individual members. Nancy Macdonald who wrote one of the letters nominating her was the emcee. Connie had several friends and family members attend her celebration, one of who was Nijole Liobikiene, an Avanta members who came all of the way from Lithuania to be present at the celebration.
Sunday, August 13, was for Hilda Richards, in connection with Annual Meeting and her work as a Board Member. Mel MacNeil was the emcee for this celebration, since he was also on the Board for many years with Hilda. By phone we were able to hear from Susan McFeaters, Roberta DeAngelis, Hugh Gratz and Hilda's adopted daughter, Sefi Yadeta.
Click on each recipient above to read more.
Do you want to sent a congratulatory note? Check the online membership
roster for addresses of the recipients at
www.avanta.net "For Members".