Congratulations to Trina Steinmaker, vocational evaluator at FSCJ Nassau Center, for receiving the prestigious, gold level President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA).

The PVSA is a national award that recognizes volunteer service. The gold level for the adult category is awarded to individuals who are 26 years of age and older and have volunteered with an organization for at least 500 hours over the course of 12 months.

Trina was presented the award at a recent ceremony hosted by the Jacksonville chapter of the American Red Cross for the volunteer hours she completed during her 2012-13 disaster relief deployments, in addition to all of the work she has done locally and at the chapter office.

Trina shared more about her service and experience with us. Read more below.

For more than four years, I’ve been a volunteer with the American Red Cross. During that time, I have dedicated close to 1,000 hours of volunteer service – including work time spent on two deployments: Tropical Storm Debby (Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia) and Superstorm Sandy (New York).

The New York deployment was somewhat unexpected, however when the opportunity came up, I was asked if I had a preference regarding which area to deploy to as there were multiple states recovering from the disaster. My response was to send me where I was most needed. The next day, I was deployed to New York. Not long after arriving, I was asked to help manage the team on Long Island. Those asking had no idea that Long Island is where I was born and reared until I was 10.

It was both an honor and a privilege to work alongside of like-minded volunteers from all over the country, as well as some international locations, and to see the spirit and dedication of the clients who had lost just about everything and were going through the recovery process.

Let us all commend Trina for her selfless dedication and service to help others in the most critical times of need. We are proud to call Trina a part of the FSCJ team.