About 40 people applauded Monday night as Hollister resident
Carole Willette was named the San Benito County Library’s Volunteer
of the Year for 2002.
About 40 people applauded Monday night as Hollister resident Carole Willette was named the San Benito County Library’s Volunteer of the Year for 2002.
Librarian Jo Wahdan presented Willette with a plaque commending her for outstanding service over the past 12 months, which Wahdan termed as “far beyond the call of duty.”
The occasion was a pot luck banquet for staff members, volunteers and friends, sponsored by the Friends of the Library during National Library Week activities locally.
In addition, Wahdan said, Willette will be formally recognized for her volunteer work by the county Board of Supervisors at its May 6 meeting.
Willette and her late husband, Leon, and their six children came to Hollister in 1975. “Everything my kids became involved in, I took a part in,” she said. That included assisting in Boy and Girl Scout activities and serving as a 4-H leader.
Among her other community activities are serving food at the Marley Holte Holiday Dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas, teaching at the local Presbyterian Church School and involvement in church work.
Her duties at the library, where she has been a volunteer for five years, include serving as assistant chairperson of the Born to Read program. She is also the story-teller at the Tuesday evening Sleepy Time Story Time when toddlers, accompanied by their parents, come to the library dressed in pajamas with stuffed animals to hear the stories.
Willette also represents the local library at regional conferences.
“This honor is not given easily and it is seldom easy to determine the recipient because we have many outstanding volunteers,” Wahdan said.
