This year’s OPAL Award winners were Rabbi Merle Singer (left),
pilot Kenneth Davis, longtime volunteer Patricia Thomas, George
Snow Scholarship Fund President Timothy Snow, and 1st United
Bancorp and 1st United Bank Board Chairman Warren Orlando. Photo provided
By Liz Best
Where else could a rabbi, a banker, a pilot, a tireless community volunteer and a man who founded a scholarship program in his father’s memory be honored at the same time but at the annual OPAL Awards?
At the Rotary Club of Boca Raton’s 15th Annual OPAL (Outstanding People and Leadership) Awards ceremony, held Jan. 14 at Boca Pointe Country Club, not only were five outstanding people honored, money was raised to provide college scholarships for high school students in need of financial help to attend college.
The Boca Raton group has 34 students receiving financial help and mentoring services and selects 10 to 15 new students each year.
The idea is to find determined students who can’t afford college, and make sure they are able to complete their degree program debt-free.
At the 2012 OPAL Awards, the spotlight was on five local residents who have devoted their lives to helping others.
Rabbi Merle Singer was the club’s first religious nominee and is the reason Temple Beth El is a force in the community, according to the local Rotary president, Doug Mummaw.
“He has touched many lives and he’s been a spiritual leader in our community for 35 years.”
Volunteer Patricia Thomas has spent years working nonstop for those less fortunate in the Boca area through her involvement with a variety of nonprofit organizations.
She approaches her volunteer work as if she were being paid for it.
“Her full-time job was service,” said Mummaw. “She worked it a lot like a career.”
Kenneth Davis, a 35-year Rotary member, uses his pilot’s license to serve the children at the orphanage on Cat Island in the Bahamas.
Not only is he instrumental in delivering much-needed services to the tiny isolated island community, he also gets to know the kids he helps.
“He swims with the kids and they all call him Uncle Kenny,” said Mummaw.
OPAL recipient Timothy Snow started a scholarship program in memory of his father, George Snow, who perished in a helicopter accident.
The George Snow Scholarship Fund is a world-class program that provides fostering and mentoring services to students, said Mummaw.
Warren Orlando, chairman of the board of 1st United Bancorp and 1st United Bank, received an OPAL for his contribution to the local business community.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone he hasn’t helped in business,” said Mummaw. “He’s also one of the kindest, dearest people you could meet.”
OPAL is the flagship fundraiser for the Boca Rotary Club and Mummaw is pleased with the spirit of the program and how well it fits the spirit of Rotary Club International.
“The Rotary International mantra, or slogan, is ‘changing lives and building futures,’ ” he said. “It’s great that the mantra is so fitting to what we do.” Ú
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