On Friday, March 27, 2009, the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce and the Petaluma Argus Courier held the 2009 Community Awards of Excellence. It was a great evening, everyone got a taste of Petaluma with ten of Petaluma’s best restaurants and caterers providing samples of their culinary delights and music was provided by the Petaluma High School Jazz Combo. After an hour of mingling, the Awards ceremony began. Twelve awards were presented, honoring all the best in Petaluma, from service people to firefighter of the year, to police officer of the year. Rick Pillsbury, the coach of the Casa Grande Academic Decathlon team received an award for excellence in Education. Lagunitas Brewing Company received the award to best small Business of the year while Bank of Marin received the Large Business of the year award. Cathy Bachman was honored as the volunteer of the year with Tom Corbett receiving a special acknowledgement for all his work on the Sesquicentennial celebration. And I was honored with the Citizen of the Year award.

It is a great honor to be acknowledged in this way. In my acceptance speech, I talked about what an amazing place Petaluma is and how through all the non profits in town, it has created a safety net for those in town who need help and assistance. The COTS program really works – there are numerous success stories of individuals completing the program and finding themselves becoming first time homebuyers, something they thought would never happen in their lives. Petaluma People Services Center offers numerous programs that support the community. I am only involved in one, Meals on Wheels – a remarkable program that delivers almost 100 meals every day to people in need. And the third non profit I am involved in is Rebuilding Together Petaluma – transforming Petaluma’s neighborhoods, one house at a time. Rebuilding Together Petaluma provides any current low income homeowner with the ability to have their home rehabilitated into a safe and secure environment. There is a work day occurring on Saturday, April 18 when Rebuilding Together Petaluma will be working on 17 houses that day. Please call 707-765-3944 if you need help or would like to volunteer. I feel that all of us working in the nonprofit world are making Petaluma the best town to live in. We all support the community that supports us which is what it is all about. Keep up the good work Petaluma.

Posted By: Edward Reiners