Community Roundtable Names Alice B. Tompkins, Non-Profit and Krzanowski Scholarship Honorees

The Community Roundtable held its annual dinner Feb. 23 and announced this year’s Non-Profit Organization of the Year, the Alice B. Tompkins Community Award recipient and the first-ever Maureen Krzanowski Scholarship recipient.

The top non-profit award, along with a $500 check, went to the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, which shares space in the Sandy Rodriguez Center with the Brandon Regional Library.

“It was a very pleasant surprise,” said Dawn Galia, the center’s executive director. “It’s very nice to see that providing a platform for the fine arts has been recognized as something worthwhile for the community.”

“Its nice to be acknowledged for all that we do,” added Lisa Rodriguez, this year’s honorary mayor of Brandon and Center Place’s marketing director. “For 35 years we’ve been providing easy access to the arts for children and adults. We also serve as a meeting place for nonprofits and town hall meetings and special events for civic and charitable organizations.”

This year’s Alice B. Tompkins Award winner is Sandy Pullinger, a long-time community advocate and supporter, who has volunteered tirelessly over the years for many groups and organizations.

“She is an amazing public servant and so deserving of the award,” said Susan Saunders, last year’s Alice B. Tompkins recipient. “She worked on Relays For Life for the American Cancer Society (ACS) and was president and vice president of the local chapter for the ACS. She stared the Brandon chapter of the American Heart Association and she was a big deal with the Brandon Service League. She worked for the YMCA and the Brandon Care Pregnancy Center among so many other things. Her resume is pages long.”

“When they talk about a leader in the community, she was a leader in the community,” said Saunders’ husband, Steve. “She led by example and got involved in all good things and made them better.”

Also at the Community Affairs Dinner, Newsome High School senior Alexis Bargamin received the first-ever Maureen Krzanowski Scholarship. The award is given in memory of the Roundtable’s former president and long-time community supporter who, with her husband, Frank, received the Alice B. Tompkins award in 2000.

Krzanowski was active with the Brandon Lions Club and Bargamin is a member of her school’s Leo Club, which is associated with the adult service organization.

Janine Nickerson, vice president of the Roundtable, said the dinner was well-attended, with some 135 guests in attendance. The theme of the dinner: “Celebrating Community Pride: Past and Future.”

Featured speakers were Nat Storms, the town’s first honorary mayor, in 1959, and Col. Lenny J. Richoux, base commander of MacDill Air Force Base. Storms’ wife, Alice, was instrumental in founding more than 50 years ago the Roundtable Charities of Greater Brandon Inc., an umbrella group for area charities and non-profit organizations.

“It was a very exciting, informative evening,” Nickerson said. “Nat Storms, our first mayor, talked about his campaign and he described life in Brandon in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Brandon was lacking buildings and burgers sold for 25 cents. And then, to contrast that with Col. Richoux, who talked about how 80 percent of MacDill’s Air Force people live out here in Brandon.”

Added Nickerson: “This isn’t the Brandon like we used to know, which is what we wanted to remember, but we also wanted to look ahead.”