Stellar day

At work our department has something called the Stella Award. It's a "career achievement award unique to Accounting Services at Dallas designed to validate and recognize individuals who consistently demonstrate the qualities essential to promoting and sustaining a High Performance Environment / Great Place to Work." We have a huge banquet where everyone dresses up and it's totally hush-hush who the winners are until their 'unveiling' at the banquet. This is the 3rd year of the award and banquet. This is my third year to be on the banquet committee and my third year to lead the choir for the event.

This year much to my delight and surprise - I received the award.

It was the perfect way to be honored. I got to invite 6 guest - my husband and my 5 siblings (it just so happened that my brother from OR is in town this week so he even came). My friend Mary Perl who happens to be on my team and in the choir and won a Stella award last year wrote a speech to "present" me as a winner. It was the most amazingly perfect presentation - I could not have asked for a more perfect presentation. Here are some photos and her speech.

Me and Mary Perl

My brothers Randall and Brad

Hubby Richard and brothers Jonathan and Randall

Me and my sweet hubby

Sisters (we took like 20 of the 3 of us)

Me being a dork (that actually turned out alright)

Me holding my Stella next to the lifesized Stella

I made them be "Stellas" behind me.

Mary's speech:

I looked up Stella in the dictionary and the definition was star. Susan truly is a star. She is not just a star at work; she is also a star to her family, her friends, in the choir and in the theatre. Her passion, enthusiasm, brilliance and fun loving nature make her shine a little brighter than most. Susan’s accomplishments at work are numerous and it would take more than the time I have to name them all. What I feel everyone should know about Susan is how others feel about her. Susan’s first manager at Allstate had this to say:

Susan is the most functionally creative person I know. Seriously. She can sew, draw and sing. But she can also program a database, direct a choir and write a presentation. She can redesign a mail process, work through system access hurdles and reassure a first time presenter. That's amazing to me. Its true talent matched with skill. But more than that, its true brilliance matched with heart.

One of her co-stars said that Susan is fun, creative, talented, and wacky. He said she always has great ideas and she is willing to try anything to make the performance a success. A choir member said that Susan is the heart and soul of the choir. She encourages everyone to take risks and to have fun while doing it.

I wanted to find out about Susan from the people who know and love her best, her family. Unfortunately her parents were not able to make it here today but they told me they are very proud of Susan. Her mother said “it is hard to believe that Susan started out in life as a very quiet and painfully shy little girl, she almost didn’t make it to class that first day of kindergarten because she was so anxious. I guess kindergarten was all it took to loosen her up.” Susan has blossomed into a confident and remarkable woman.

Susan is the oldest of 6 children (all 6 children have worked at Allstate). I had the opportunity to speak with them and to find out why Susan was special to them. Her sister Allison said that Susan is not just her sister, she is her friend, she is a good listener and she is always there to help her day or night. She said that Susan has a big heart. They went to serve at the soup kitchen and one of the people they were serving said they were cold and Susan actually took the coat off of her back and gave it to that person. That is one of the reasons she always looks up to Susan. Her brother Randall had a similar story. He told me about a time when Susan was traveling on a trip a couple of years ago to a family gathering in Utah. Susan heard a woman crying and asking for help in the airport bathroom stall. The woman had a medical problem. She had soiled her clothing and was trying to rinse them off in the toilet. Susan heard other women coming out of the bathroom being really inconsiderate. She went in and asked how she could help. She bought/gave the lady some replacement clothes, and helped her get ready for her flight. This wasn't a special occasion -- Susan always does things like this. Her brothers joke that she's the one who is going to heaven because she just does good things. He added -I can only imagine that this same attitude is also apparent in her career at Allstate. She wants to make the world a better place within the sphere of her influence.

Her brother Jonathon had this story to share: Growing up, our family could not afford the airfare to go on vacations. As a result, we would take longs drives to our destinations. One summer, on one such drive, I was singing out of a song book that contained music from Disney’s Aladdin. I was probably 11 or 12 at the time, and Susan was probably 15 or 16. After singing a solo of the “One Jump Ahead” reprise, Susan praised me for how well it sounded. It was a nice compliment, but I didn’t think anything of it. I have thought back to that moment many times in my life. Isn’t it funny how the words of praise from your older sister at age 12 could have such an impact on your life? How many teenagers would have such kind words for a younger sibling? This is who Susan is. She lives her life lifting people up and helping them to see who they really are. I became a better person, and a better man, because Susan believed I could be. Her brother Bradley agrees with his brother’s sentiments. He said that Susan is his cool older sister and she is always looking out for him. Her sister Melanie said that Susan is hardworking and dedicated. She said that Susan always takes the time to make sure that everyone is included and she always stands up for what she believes in, even if it is not the most popular point of view. She loves children and loves to play dress up. She said that Susan is never afraid to show the kid inside her and will play Star Wars for hours with her nephew. In fact dressing up and playing Star Wars is how she started dating her husband Richard. She was helping him make a Hans Solo outfit for Halloween and she ended up being his princess Leia and she still is today. Richard told me that what he loves about Susan is her upbeat and positive attitude. She is a hard worker and has a smile for everyone she meets.

All of this made me realize that with Susan what you see is what you get. Whether at work or at home she is the same kind caring wonderful person. She is someone we should all look up to. I know I do. It is my great honor to present her with the Stella award but even a greater honor to call her friend. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you my friend, Susan White.