OKDHS Recognizes State Volunteers

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Department of Human Services recently honored a number of individuals who have significantly contributed to the state through their volunteer efforts.
The State Volunteer Awards Ceremony, “Volunteers -- The Keys to Success,” was held at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City, with OKDHS Director Howard Hendrick and former Oklahoma First Lady Donna Nigh presenting the awards. Two Tulsa residents, Seth Jestice and Lori Saldeen, were among those honored.

The youth award category recognizes the contributions of an individual volunteer of school age (6 to 22 years) or a group of students who, on a voluntary basis, engage in activities benefiting the community or individuals in an ongoing, meaningful way.

Seth Jestice spent one day a week during his summer break and two days a weeks for three months, totaling 112 hours, volunteering at the Tulsa County 72H OKDHS office.

The file room at 72H was in great disarray due to the merger of the 72G and 72H offices. Locating case information is crucial to a county office for many reasons such as quality control audits, eligibility determination, and providing copies of information to clients. The two offices had different filing systems, both numeric and alphabetical. A new system was developed to accommodate the 70,000 case files for identification and efficiency. During the file merger an enormous amount of loose filing accumulated.

Jestice’s administrative volunteer services including purging old case files, filing loose files, creating case files, and filing and pulling cases. He was instrumental in getting all the filing organized in a neat and orderly manner. Not only did Jestice assemble and distribute security destruction boxes, he sealed and removed the full security destruction boxes for the entire office of 100-plus staff. He also assisted in relocating numerous boxes of history files to the third floor.

In the adult category, Lori Saldeen was honored for her work with people with disabilities.

Saldeen volunteers by purchasing snacks to sell at monthly interagency dances for people with disabilities, their families and staff. Proceeds are used to pay for the party room, and any excess is donated to Special Olympics.

For more than 10 years Saldeen has been setting up the snacks and recruiting her own family members and friends to help with each dance. Because of her efforts, the monthly dances have been held even when funding was almost non-existent. She has provided more than 1,200 hours of volunteer service.

More than 100 people attended the ceremony, including volunteers, their family and friends and a number of state legislators.

“Volunteers truly are the lifeblood of this state,” said Karen Jacobs, Coordinator of the OKDHS Office of Volunteerism. “These folks spend countless hours volunteering their time, working to make Oklahoma a better state. They do it not for any glory or recognition, but simply because they have a caring and generous nature. We all owe these volunteers a debt of gratitude.”

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OKDHS Director Howard Hendrick, left, presents the “Leader of Tomorrow” Award to Seth Jestice.

OKDHS Director Howard Hendrick presents a Volunteer Service Award to Lori Saldeen.