This award is named for the founder of the Assistance League, who was less visible and filled the role of hardworking “behind the scenes” assistant to Anne Banning. There have only been 4 recipients in ALMSP history This award is typically presented in May but due to the pandemic, we are awarding today.  

This very talented woman joined the Assistance League in 2011 and is always willing to step up to the plate in any situation.

She has served on various committees such as Membership, Marketing, Links to Learning, Literacy Plus and has been involved in CFK, FFK, Literacy Plus, and Reading Buddies. Other Members have seen students break from line at CFK events to run over and give her a hug as they knew her from Lit Plus. Clearly, she had been a meaningful person in these children’s lives. She also Chaired several committees including Open Your Heart, Directory and Marketing and Public Relations. 

She is a graphic designer whose work is showcased throughout the ALMSP network; the Annual Report, Directory and website redesign are examples of her expertise. When she became aware that some members were unable to get their directories from the Thrift Shop, she created a file that allowed a pictorial directory to be posted on the chapter website. She has created our Annual Reports for many years. She has a great ability to create an outstanding product year after year that make our chapter, programs, and members shine. She not only handles all the graphic design for the Annual Report she works closely with vendors to manage the quality of the product and negotiates pricing and timing. We cannot even imagine how many hours she puts into the design, managing the process, and formatting the donor inserts.

Our chapter website was recently redesigned and transferred to the National Assistance League website platform. She spent countless hours researching other sites and bringing design ideas to the table. She also selected and sized the photos for many of the website pages. Her graphic design expertise and training contributed greatly to the professional look and feel of our website redesign.

She has also designed our Open Your Heart brochures and mailings for many years as well as the progress reports signifying how close we are to achieving our goals.

We will also have a new pop-up banner to utilize at our activities thanks to her marvelous and insightful abilities. She researched, designed and negotiated with various vendors to make this happen. This new display will be an asset as we again have events where we want our organization name and logo to be presented to the public. She also created the large poster in our Thrift Shop which is on the wall behind the cash register. She updated the graphics last spring and arranged for its printing and installation.

The new door signs at the Thrift Shop are also her creation – often at a moment’s notice – to inform customers of ever -changing opening and closing times, changing hours and donation times. She also created an ad to run in the Sun newspaper when we received the Readers’ Choice Best Thrift Shop Recognition. The resulting ad was professional and impactful. Once the ad was finalized, she worked directly with the newspaper staff to get the correct files and information to them. The lead time was short, but she worked diligently to meet the paper’s deadline so our ad would be published.

By now you have probably guessed the identity of this remarkable woman who is always ready, willing, able and eager to share her abilities and expertise with all of us and is the embodiment of what it means to be a member of ALMSP.

We are proud & honored to present the Ada Edwards Laughlin award to Susan Casey!

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