Jackie Adams Awarded the 2011 Theresa Belniak Service Award

The member we are honoring today has been a member of the Women‟s National Duckpin Association since 1987. In 2003, she was elected President of the WNDA. For six consecutive years, she dedicated and committed herself to making our tour the best it could be.

Under her leadership, our organization flourished. She has the innate ability to bring people together and to bring out the best in each of them. By doing so she strengthened the very core of the WNDA‟s existence. Whether she was working behind the scenes or out in front representing us, there was always a feeling of leadership with camaraderie. Her firm belief in “it takes a village” brought us all together in a friendship that enriched us all.

Jackie Adams (center) with Events Director Carol Mazzeo (left) and President Chuck Kramer (right)Assuming the office of President under difficult financial times, she audited our books; instituted a new forward-looking budget process so that the Governing Body could always estimate our year-end financial position; quietly but successfully resolved issues the bowlers or board members might have; spear-headed ideas to make our tour stops more inviting and the "event of choice‟ for the weekend for many more women bowlers; spent hundreds of hours proofing statistics and advertisements in the program books and helping with the printing and binding of the books. She stood by a personal mission to never let a member bowl without a banner, because she felt that every member was a professional and was entitled to that banner. She made sure that banners were immediately made for the new members and would make extra trips to drive new banners to bowling centers or meet other members to take the banners to them. Even after the banners had been delivered and hung at the centers. She could randomly be caught sneaking up on the lanes to hang a new banner so the new member could see her name among the others when she arrived.

She found it easy to “rally the troops” when she needed assistance from others to put together goody bags, run banners or saleable items around town, donate items, sell raffle tickets, hold Chinese raffles, or anything else to make our tour special. What was special was that she kept track of everyone that pitched in to help throughout the year and offered appreciation awards to each of them at the end of each year, even if they weren‟t members. “They” had gone above and beyond and that was her way of thanking them.

When we lost Theresa Belniak, she stepped up to also take on the responsibility of the Treasurer for the tour for the next two years.

She took on the responsibility of the Presidency with many goals in mind. She will be the first to tell you, however, that her success was due largely to the Governing Body, the Events Director, and to the members who stood with and beside her during those six years. “No man is an island” and her leadership, commitment and service to the WNDA exemplified the meaning of those words.

For all her many contributions to the WNDA, we are proud to give Jackie Adams the 2011 Theresa Belniak Service Award.