Service winners selected
PENN TWP — Two Butler County women will be honored for dedicating their time and efforts to help youth in the county.
Gerri Volchko Paulisick and Pamela Ambrose will receive the 67th Distinguished Service Awards May 4 at the Butler Country Club.
The awards are given for outstanding volunteer service. The senior award goes to a person older than 45, and the junior award to someone younger than 45.
[naviga:h3]Senior Award[/naviga:h3]
Paulisick, 46, of Butler has served as a room mother for 12 years at Emily Brittain Elementary School, assisting with kindergarten classes in the afternoon. She has sponsored Olympic Day at the school for eight years, chairing the event in 2014.
She was thrilled to receive the award.
“It is obviously an incredible honor,” she said.
“And for me having the community recognize the good works that anybody does is a wonderful thing. Not just me, because we hear so much negative, it's nice that things like this bring to light all of the good that people do, and I'm very honored to be considered in that group.”
Paulisick credits her volunteering to her attitude.
“Probably some blind optimism that I just I always believe things can be better, but I also think if you want them to be better, you have to help make them better,” she said.
Paulisick is a founder and managing partner of the law firm of Boyer, Paulisick & Eberle.
She is a member of the Collaborative Law Association of Southwestern PA, The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, the Butler County Bar Association and the Butler County Family Court Rules Committee.
Paulisick also serves as counsel for the Butler County Mental Health agency.
As a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, she was the past chair of the association's Client and Community Relations Committee, a member of the association's Family Law Section and is on that section's legislative committee.
She was a board member of Candle Inc., which is a nonprofit drug prevention organization. She also worked on the Light House Foundation Committee Hats and Handbags project.
Paulisick has been a member for several years of the Visiting Nurses Association board, once serving as chair.
She is a parent representative on the Butler School District's Community Advisory Panel for the realignment of students and schools districtwide. She also is an attorney adviser and coach for the Butler School District Mock Trial Team.
Since 2013, Paulisick has been on the board of the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation.
<h3>Junior Award</h3>Ambrose, 43, of Cabot who has devoted much of the past 14 years to the Girl Scouts, also is pleased to receive the award.“I am truly honored,” said Ambrose, who is the maintenance clerk of the Butler County Facilities and Operations Department.“I was just honored to be nominated. I volunteer through Girl Scouts, and I love working with the girls. I love giving them the opportunity to maybe do other things that they otherwise wouldn't get to do.”Ambrose is the treasurer of the Service Team of the Girls Scouts.That is a group of seven leaders who plan neighborhood events for all 36 Girl Scout troops in the Butler School District. She sets up and deals with all scout checking accounts and other financial matters.Ambrose has an annual father-daughter bowling event for the scouts that attracts an average of 300 to 350 participants.Monthly, she takes two troops of older-aged girls to assist patients at the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center with activities. She's even gone so far as to dress up as a Girl Scout cookie during cookie season and in the Christmas parade.Ambrose volunteers for the annual Breakfast with the Easter Bunny and the flashlight candy cane hunt at Alameda Park. She has helped with the St. Wendelin picnic each year.In years past, her troop has sponsored a mother-daughter banquet at the East Butler Fire Hall, a summer event at Alameda, and a trick-or-treat event at the Orchard of Concordia.Ambrose also takes older scouts to help with the community dinner at the First United Methodist Church.
