Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

This morning I am excited to be a part of a wonderful company. In July I will celebrate 2 years with Elder Care and today I could not be prouder to be working with them. Over the past month Elder Care has won 3 awards of excellence in Oklahoma. First, one of our programs won partnership award due to our cooperation with another local non-profit. It's wonderful to be acknowledged as a cooperative non-profit. Then just a few days later we found out that we one of twenty-four finalist for a ONE (Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence) Award. We were chosen as a finalist out of 17,000 other nonprofits in Oklahoma; what an achievement! The 24 finalist were divided out into 8 categories (3 nonprofits per category) and a winner would be chosen out of each category. Then at the end of the evening one nonprofit would win the overall "Top Nonprofit of Oklahoma Award". We were not sure if we would win the "seniors" category because we were up against two very well-known nonprofits in Tulsa. However, when our category came up we were surprised to hear that we had one first place in our category. We were flabbergasted. Then as we sat there listening debating amongst ourselves about which nonprofit would take home the overall award they called our name. We won. They chose Elder Care as the 2014 Top Nonprofit of Oklahoma! We screamed a little and didn't know what to say when accepting the award. How amazing is that; what an honor. Then the news continued to get better as we came to work this morning. This morning we received word that we had won the DHS Aging Services' Program of the Year award for Golden Opportunities. I sat in awe because that was my program. My program won. We were nominated for this award and filled out the necessary paperwork but didn't really expect to win but we did. The program I have poured myself into for the past 18 months was being acknowledged as program of the year. Now, I know that this award doesn't have anything to specifically do with me because it was for the program which has been established for over 7 years now but still what an honor.

With all this I sit here this morning proud to be working for Elder Care. Not only have I grown in my 18 months here but I am part of something truly special. It's great to know that I am working with a great company and have so many people to learn from. It's amazing!