Two Honored as DailyPoints of Light on the Eastern Shore

SALISBURY, MD---One has been instrumental in continuing Special Olympics games on the Lower Eastern Shore. The other founded a local elementary school program to help at-risk students curb behavioral problems. The one thing they have in common: They’re both Points of Light.

Kathy Daly of Salisbury and Dorrie Moon of Marion Station, MD, received the Daily Points of Light Award from the Points of Light Foundation, presented by the ShoreCAN Volunteer Center at Salisbury University for their work with Lower Shore Youth. The award is one of the highest national volunteerism honors.

In 2003, Daly helped bring the Special Olympics’ Lower Shore Annual Spring Games back to the area after an eight-year absence. As a volunteer, she formed and oversaw the games’ committees, scouted locations, identified potential sponsors and coordinated the day’s events. Thanks to her efforts, more than 160 athletes have been able to participate in the games for the past three years.

Daly also is a recent past president and a nine-year board member of the Holly Community, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to serving people with disabilities throughout Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Moon, a teachers’ aide at Marion Sarah Peyton Elementary School in Marion Station, in 2003 volunteered to implement an alternative suspension program for 10 boys at the school identified with discipline problems. Called the Boys Club, the program allowed the students to set daily goals with Moon’s help and identify ways they could improve. Thanks to the program, the students’ classroom behavior improved throughout the course of the year, and many have carried the traits of good behavior with them into middle school.

Last year, Moon expanded the idea to include girls at the school in a new club called Rose Buds. She also has implemented the Kids of Honor program into these student organizations. The national program offers incentives to help at-risk students complete high school and rewards them for good behavior.

Daily Points of Light Awards recognize volunteers who provide long-term educational, safety and service opportunities in local communities. President George Bush implemented the Daily Points of Light program in 1989, recognizing more than 1,000 volunteers nationwide through 1993. The program was reinstated in 1998.

For more information call 410-546-6015 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu. "