FRCA Elects Officers, Presents Service Awards At Annual Meeting

Over 100 people, including the Board of Directors, staff, local community members and volunteers attended (FRCA) Annual Meeting during which the Board elected officers for the upcoming year and presented numerous awards to members of the community. Paul Loberti, Chief Administrator of the Office of HIV/AIDS & Viral Hepatitis at the RI Department of Public Health was the keynote speaker at the June 13 event.

The FRCA Board elected the following slate of officers for 2011-12: Nancy L. Benoit, Chair; Rev. Dorian Parker, Vice Chair; Dr. Julien Ayotte, Treasurer and Gerard Noel, Secretary.

The group's highest commendation, the Paul Dempster Award, honors the principal founder of both the Woonsocket Shelter and soup kitchen.  This year, the Dempster Award was presented to the Social Ministries in Woonsocket.  

In her remarks introducing the award, Board Chair Nancy Benoit noted that the St. James Episcopal Church ministries, including the Prescott Beach Food Bank, the Coat of Many Colors Clothing Ministry, and other special funds that help with heat, utilities and other needs, have been an important resource to FRCA for over 20 years. Last year, the food bank distributed 37,836 meals to over 4,200 individuals and FRCA issued over 2,700 vouchers for clothing that were filled by the Coat of Many Colors.  

The Doris L. O’Brien Memorial award was presented to Lisa Lachance, a member of the FRCA fiscal staff who has been with the agency since 1997, and who has been a committed volunteer for the Volunteer Tax Assistance program and holiday programs.

Community and Volunteer Recognition Awards were presented to Schneider-Electric, Warren McGoldrick, Mickey Banks, Tom Hannah, Jeff Menard-Levesque, Susan Prats, Nathan Ray, Cindy Roy, Anne Flores and Jacob Metivier. In addition, ten FRCA staff received tenure awards for their years of service to the agency, including Deputy Executive Director Nancy Paradee for her 20 years of service.