On October 22, DAYMARK took part in the West Virginia Child Care Association’s “Be the One to Change a Child’s Life “ celebration at the John XXIII Pastoral Center in Charleston. Each member agency chose an outstand-ing employee to be honored at the luncheon and accompa-nying festivities. Fifteen year veteran youth worker Diana Taylor was nominated by the DAYMARK Management Team as this year’s most outstanding child service provid-er.

Diana has been working with DAYMARK youth for over 15 years. Every time that she has come to work for the past 15 years, she has nurtured, taught, and forged important relationships with the young people in her care. Everyone that knows Diana, knows that Diana cares about the Daymark youth. They call her D. She advocates for them and protects them. When she takes them to medical appointments, she helps them explain their needs to the doctors. She laughs and has fun with them. She cooks amazing meals for the kids, and joins them, always sitting with them at the table. She has is a soft shoulder for the kids to lean on when they have a tough day or a broken heart. She knows what to say to the youth to make difficult decisions easier and teaches them how to make something good even better. When former Turning Point youth call or stop by to tell us how they are doing, they al-ways ask for Diana. One Patchwork youth, after being dis-charged from the program, came to the shelter on a Sun-day evening, hoping for a home-cooked meal by Diana.

She also cares about the Daymark staff and will call to personally remind people about meetings or trainings that they need to at-tend. Staff also take their problems to Diana and find that after talking with her, everything seems alright.

Diana cares about the agency. Her schedul-ing skills are phenomenal…and they need to be at our agency! She somehow comes up with coverage even at the shortest of notifica-tions. Staff are willing to show up for her because of the respect they have for her, as well as the respect she shows for them. Even when she is sick or on vacation, she still does the schedule, and will still find coverage when someone calls off, even if she has to do it from home, from the beach, or from a cruise ship.

Finally, Diana cares about her family. She is a doting mother and grandmother and has been known to provide around the clock care to any sick or hurt family member in need.

Her supervisor says, “Diana is loyal and re-sponsible. I’m so proud to say she is an em-ployee of Daymark. She has truly made our organization so much stronger than it would be without her. She does what she says she’s going to do, and for a supervisor, that is heavenly.”
Betty Anne Smith, long-time Daymark Board of Directors member was also honored as a Community Service Award recipient for her lifetime of work with Daymark and other chil-dren’s service organizations in West Virginia.

Left: Girl Scout Troop 4842 and Troup 4835 did a complete overhaul on the Patchwork back yard painting the fence, adding stepping stones and planting a garden for Patchwork and Turning Point residents to enjoy.

Below: DAYMARK Executive Director Vicki Pleasant and Turning Point Youth Worker Diana Taylor at the West Virginia Child Care Association “Be the One to Change a Child’s Life” Event. Vicki Pleasant presented Diana Taylor with DAYMARK’s Outstanding Child Care Worker of the Year Award.

Daymark Founder Ar-dath Francke was named a Pan-dora Jewelry Hearts of Today Honoree in a ceremony in Los Angeles November 15, 2014. PANDORA Jewelry received more than 700 nominations for the inaugural PANDORA Hearts of Today program, an initiative that celebrates women who are work-ing to improve the lives or wom-en and children in their commu-nities and around the world. Of the 700, an esteemed panel of judges helped identify the 20 women who had the strongest and most inspiring stories. Arda-th’s story, about how she gath-ered community support and created DAYMARK’s Patchwork Crisis Shelter after having to turn away a teenager in need on Christmas Eve, was strong enough to make her a finalist. Once the submissions were nar-rowed down to 20 semi-finalists, the public voted on-line to select the final eight honorees. Ardath received votes from as far away as Paris, France.
Ardath traveled to Los Angeles to accept her award accompanied by several family members, including Sarah Francke, who currently serves on Daymark’s Board of Directors.
Each Hearts of Today honoree received $25,000 to further the goals of her charita-ble organization. After she re-turned to Charleston, DAYMARK hosted a reception in her honor at the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston.

DAYMARK’s Vicki Pleas-ant, Cheryl Patrick, and Beth Scohy surprise Ar-dath with a visit to tell her that she has won the Pandora Hearts of Today contest.

Ardath and the other Pandora Hearts of today winners.

Ardath listens to DAY-MARK youth talk about their experiences at DAY-MARK and thank her for her contribution to the community at a reception in her honor in Charles-ton.

CAPITAL HIGH SCHOOL HELP OUT

Mrs. Becky Jarret’s Senior Civics class of Capital High Shool hosted a clothing drive in November and December of 2013. New and gently used clothing was collected by the entire history department and then sorted by Mrs. Becky Jarret’s senior class. Other classes collected items for hygiene kits. The clothes were sent to DAYMARK.

Pictured (at left) are members of the Third Period Civics Class loading donated items into the DAYMARK Outreach van and (right) the entire Third Period Civic Class.

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