Judson volunteer award to be presented at prayer breakfast
On Wednesday, May 6, Judson University in Elgin will name the winner of the D. Ray Wilson Volunteer Service Award.
The award is presented annually to the candidate who has contributed to the greater good within the Fox Valley community by voluntarily serving others' physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual needs. It will be given out during Judson's annual Community Prayer Breakfast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 6, in the Lindner Fitness Center, 1151 N. State St., Elgin.
The nominees are:
• Phyllis E. Folarin, who has served the community in several ways, including as a board trustee and board chairwoman for Elgin Community College for 12 years. She is a former board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Elgin, and a member of the Elgin Area School District U-46 African-American Student Advisory Council. She helped develop ECC's nationally recognized Alliance for College Readiness programs. She also chaired the Diversity Committee of the Illinois Community College Trustee Association; served on the National Diversity Committee for the Association of Community College Trustees; and participated in the national Governance Leadership Institute. She founded the annual Black Family Festival at the Gail Borden Public Library; and created a church-based mentoring program for African-American boys. She now volunteers for ECC's Transition Academy. A 34-year former U-46 administrator, Folarin also is the principal consultant for her educational consulting firm, Achievement Solutions. She is the recipient of ECC's Lasting Impact Award; the 1999 Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of education; and the 2003 YMCA Leader Luncheon Racial Justice Award. She recently was granted a lifetime membership by the Association of Community College Trustees.
• Henoch Fuentes, a longtime civic volunteer and chaplain, who has worked as a liaison for the Elgin Police Department with the Latino community and volunteered with prisons in DuPage and Kane counties, building programs for anger management and Bible studies. Fuentes has volunteered with the police department for more than 20 years. He also helped the Elgin Fire Department launch a humanitarian aid effort for his home country of Chile after a 2010 earthquake. He developed a children's soccer tournament to honor Sept. 11, 2001, first responders that ran for several years afterward. He serves as the outreach pastor for Evangelical Covenant Church in Elgin, and a Bible teacher and theologian with the Spanish-English Ministry Studies program at Judson University. He helped form the Woman of Grace and Dignity organization. He was the 2001 recipient of Elgin's "Martin Luther King Jr. Award" for civil rights advocacy.
• Ben Manso, who worked as a volunteer chaplain with the Elgin Police Department for five years counseling people who lost family members to natural causes, suicide, or murder. He is the volunteer coordinator and founder of the Spanish-English Ministry Studies program at Judson University. He has worked more than 30 years as an administrator and educator in Chicago and Puerto Rico. Manso is pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana of Elgin, and chaplain for "bilingual" Robinson Correctional Center in Illinois. He serves on the Regional Ministry Board of the American Baptist Churches in Great Rivers, and is the executive minister of the Christian Education and Theological School in Puerto Rico. He also serves as the general treasurer of a Puerto Rican Christian radio station and is a U.S. Army veteran.
• Velma Sept, a longtime community volunteer, is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service. She has been a member of the Boys and Girls Club of Elgin since its inception, and is a current board member. She is a member of the Elgin Circle of Wise Women, the African American Advisory Council to Elgin Area School District U-46, the U-46 Educational Foundation, and the Black Women's Association. She also is a member of: the Elgin Community Career and College Readiness Committee, the Elgin Area Women's Connection, the Elgin Police Citizens Advisory Committee, and the Elgin Area Chamber Retention Committee. Sept has worked with the Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association, and she sings with her family's group, "The Larkin Family of Chicago." In 2010, she received the Service Award from the American Gospel Quartet Convention and was named the 2010 Elgin Police Department Volunteer. In 2011, she was named Elgin's Volunteer of the Year. In 2012, she received the U-46 Volunteer of the Year award and was featured in a 2012 book about U-46. In 2013, she won the Lasting Impact Award from Elgin Community College, and in 2014 received the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Illinois Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti will be this year's Community Prayer Breakfast keynote speaker.
For details on the event, visit judsonu.edu/PrayerBreakfast.