USDA recognized five individual employees as “Unsung Heroes” during its recent observance of Public Service Recognition Week.

According to Otis Thompson, executive director of the Organization of Professional Employees, U.S. Department of Agriculture (OPEDA) and retired USDA public affairs specialist, the purpose of the “Unsung Hero” designation is to identify those employees who have been “unusually dedicated and efficient and had a positive attitude.”

He noted that nominees as “Unsung Heroes” are based on actual “hands-on” activities rather than on supervisory or managerial efforts. “However,” he added, “all USDA employees were eligible to be nominated.”

The idea for an “Unsung Heroes” contest was developed in late 1987 by a group of six representatives of professional organizations in the Department. In addition to OPEDA, current sponsoring groups include the Association of Technical & Supervisory Professionals, USDA’s Employee Services & Recreation Association, the National Association of Federal Veterinarians, and the USDA Chapter of the Senior Executive Association.

This is the 15^th year of the contest, which was conducted USDA- wide. Thompson said that following a Departmentwide solicitation, 30 employees were nominated, either by fellow USDA employees or by customers of USDA programs and services. The final selection was made in April by a team of USDA officials.

USDA’s “Unsung Heroes” for 2002 include:

1. Ted Currier, a supervisory tractor operator with the Agricultural Research Service’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Beltsville, Md., who has the lead responsibility for BARC’s “Harvest for the Hungry” program. He works with non- profit organizations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and ensures that surpluses of the fresh produce and other various crops--grown at BARC--are sent to feed area homeless persons. He also works with volunteer organizations who provide help in harvesting those surplus crops, and when volunteers arrive on- site, he speaks to them about ARS’s research program and the importance of the work at BARC. Prior to this initiative, the crops were disposed of through composting.
   
2. Louise “Lou” Hankins, a nutritionist stationed with the Food and Nutrition Service’s Field Office in Oklahoma City, for helping to plan and host a three-day “Train-The-Trainer” Food Safety-Nutrition Education Workshop, held in Shawnee, Okla. Fifty Native Americans, representing 19 FNS Food Distribution Programs administered by Native American Tribes located in Oklahoma and New Mexico, attended the workshop. She ensured that all aspects of the conference were ethnically and culturally accurate for the participants.
   
3. Donna Howdershelt, a secretary in the Electric Staff Division with the Rural Utilities Service at the agency’s headquarters office in Washington, DC, for her exceptional reliability, ability to accomplish the task at hand, and service as a steady resource that others go to for her institutional memory and automated systems expertise. As an example of her exceptional reliability, immediately following a death in her family, she nonetheless took care of her responsibilities for processing the Division’s Time & Attendance sheets--without telling any of her colleagues about her loss--and only upon its completion did she then take appropriate annual leave.
   
4. Grace Kerzman, a program technician with the Farm Service Agency’s county office in Garrison, N.D., for her performance in carrying out her responsibilities for all Production Flexibility Program duties in FSA’s McLean County, N.D. Office, as well as for taking on the added responsibilities of four additional crop disaster programs in the county. McLean County is the third largest one in the state, and for her to assume those added responsibilities reflected her commitment to FSA and its programs.
   
5. Keith Tidball, an international affairs specialist with the Foreign Agricultural Service in Washington, DC, for his work in developing, organizing, and implementing FAS’s “TEACH US” (Teaching Educators Agriculture and Conservation Holistically for Urban Society) Program, which enables teachers in urban elementary, middle, and high schools to travel internationally and expand their knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices. He recognizes the important role those teachers play in forming positive attitudes about agriculture and the environment among minority students. Through this program, teachers were able to travel to South Africa, China, and Ireland, with financial support from FAS, during 2001. •