Raines Recipient of CANAR Award

The LCO Vocational Rehabilitation Staff, Utina Malnourie – Director, Alicia Wolfe - Counselor, Megan Taylor – Counselor and I went to Missoula, MT June 19 – 21, 2013 for the 2013 CANAR Mid-Year Conference. CANAR stands for Consortia Of Administrators For Native American Rehabilitation, Inc. I had known that Utina had nominated Megan for an award and Utina had given me the task to make sure Megan was at the awards banquet. They announced they were about to reveal the winners of the awards, so I was ready to cheer on Megan. The first name that came up on the megatron was Rhonda Raines. I was so shocked! Teary eyed, I accepted my certificate and as I was about to be seated they began reading the nomination letter of the next recipient, the next name on the megatron was Megan Taylor. This is when we both found out that she was given the same task as I had been given; she was to make sure I was at the banquet. The third recipient was Jill Flory of Madison, employee of GLITC VRNA program and a dear friend of mine.

The Support Staff of the Year award is awarded to one of the 3 recipients from the 2013 CANAR Mid-Year. The 2013 CANAR Conference, the main national conference was held this year in Portland, OR, November 5 – 7, 2013. Due to the Government shutdown and travel restrictions not being lifted in time for our staff to register for the conference, we were unable to attend. The night of November 6th, I was in my pajamas, lying in bed and watching television when I received this text from Jill Flory stating, “Congratulations!!! You won the outstanding support staff of the year award!! I accepted it for you.” I sat straight up in bed, immediately tearing up; I could not believe what I had just read. The next thing that came through on my phone was the picture of the plaque and letter.

I’m so honored to have been selected for this award, but have to give credit to the staff I work with here at LCO Vocational Rehabilitation. Without them and my love for my job, I would have never won this award. Thank you, Utina Malnourie, Megan Taylor, Alicia Wolfe and Sheila Butler for making this a wonderful workplace. Thank you to the consumers and employers that I work with. I love doing what I do, job developing, and will continue to provide the best service I can each and every day.