Congratulations to the six Richardson Real Heroes honored April 3rd at the Richardson Civic Center. Pictured (from left) Josh Gonzalez, Reuben Pratt, Nancy Rohm, Gene Tomasello and Bob Wallace. Real Hero Artur Pira was unable to attend. See more on the work of these volunteers at www.richardsonrealheroes.com
The Richardson Real Heroes organization honored six people whose unheralded volunteerism contributes to making the city a better place to live.
The six were feted April 3rd at the fifth annual Richardson Real Heroes awards ceremony at the Richardson Civic Center.
The honorees and the organizations for which they volunteer:
- Josh Gonzalez, for his work with the Richardson Police Department Explorer Post #761
- Artur Pira, owner of Aboca's Italian Grill, for donations of meals in support of multiple non-profit organizations and the homeless
- Reuben Pratt, for more than a decade of volunteer work with Junior Achievement
- Nancy Rohm, for her work with Altrusa Richardson plus many other non-profit organizations
- Gene Tomasello, for more than 3,500 hours of volunteer work with the Richardson Adult Literacy Center
- Bob Wallace, for his work through The Counseling Place, the City of Richardson and its police department to facilitate the community service program for senior homeowners.
This was the fifth class of Real Heroes. The organization was founded by The Richardson Coalition with the motto of “Honoring Silent Generosity.” Nominees are sought from the public and then the Real Heroes board of directors chooses the finalists. Prior to this year, the board chose one Real Hero of The Year from among the finalists. For 2014, the board decided it was difficult to put a greater value on one volunteer effort over another, so it named all six finalists as Richardson Real Heroes and plans to continue that tradition.
“Selecting one of our honorees to be the Real Hero of the Year has been a struggle. All of our finalists are amazing,” said Chelsea Schmidt, chairman of the 2014 program. “We finally realized that they are all Real Heroes and deserve to be appreciated equally.”
More facts about the Richardson Real Heroes Program and the biographies of the award recipients can be found at www.richardsonrealheroes.com.
- For more information on this story, contact Tom Brooks, publicity chair of Richardson Real Heroes, at tom@tommywrites.com or phone 214-415-2551.