2003
OWD
officer Pam Spaulding named Employee of
the Year for Community Service
by Duke University
2002
OWDNA
president John Schelp named Tar Heel of
the Week by the News and Observer
(local)
2001
MuniNet
Guide & Review: Top Web Site - Citizen Participation
(national)
2000
Carraway Preservation Award
(statewide)
Pyne
Preservation Award
(local)
Durham
Grit Award
from
the Herald-Sun
(local)
WRAL
Feature on Web Site: Communities Using the
Web To Stay Connected
(local
TV)
Designated
a
Local Legacy,
Library of Congress
(national)
1999
Semi-Finalist, Global Information Infrastructure Award
(national)
1998
Citizen's
Award
from the Indy Weekly
(local)
October
17, 1998 declared
"Old
West Durham Day"
(local)
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Pam Spaulding Named Duke University Employee of the Year for Community Service
Old West Durham officer, Pam Spaulding, was recently recognized by Duke officials for her service in the community. Tired from a trip to the Final Four, even Nan Keohane stopped by to congratulate Pam.
Pam was enthusiastically nominated by the Old West Durham neighborhood, for the 2003 Duke University Employee Community Service Award.
When Erwin Mills shut down in the 1980s and the Durham Freeway destroyed dozens of mill houses and our only park, our neighborhood had hit rock bottom.
After years of neglect and hardship, Old West Durham needed to be pulled together. Today, local newspapers call us one of Durham's most active and effective neighborhood groups. A very, very large part of our success is the result of Pam Spaulding's tireless and ongoing commitment to improve the community.
The first thing Pam did was create a web site to help build that sense of community that was lost.
Designed and maintained by Pam from the beginning, our neighborhood history webpages have been honored by the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, Preservation North Carolina, and by the United States Library of Congress.
Along the way, our neighborhood association was bestowed with the Herald-Sun's "Durham Grit" Award, MuniNet Guide Review's best community site in the nation award, and the Independent Weekly's "Citizen Award" for "tireless dedication to making our community a better place to live."
Pam was directly involved in all these efforts and then some.
Pam worked to secure a $2,000 Partners Against Crime grant to help Old West Durham build community (with T-shirts and bumper stickers) and provide items for residents to enhance home security (including flood lights and deadbolt locks).
Pam also helped get 100 new street lights installed along neighborhood streets and designed neighborhood brochures that were given to elected officials, new neighbors and distributed at McDonald's Drugstore, Books on Ninth and The Regulator.
Pam created and maintains the Friends of South Ellerbe Creek website -- an informal group of citizens dedicated to conserving and enhancing the scenic, recreational, natural and historic qualities of South Ellerbe and its landscape near East Campus.
Finally, when the Partners Against Crime needed a co-chair, Pam walked up to the plate to serve. PAC2 builds bridges with police officers and empowers citizens with information on how to access the resources available to them in various areas, such as crime prevention, safety and housing. As co-chair, Pam moderated meetings between neighborhoods and officers in the police district near Duke.
A modern-day Paula Revere, Pam has worked tirelessly to get information out to the community -- by building the multi-neighborhood group's website and improve communications among Duke's closest neighbors via what has become Durham's most active community listserver.
For her quiet and effective efforts, Pam Spaulding richly deserves Duke University's Employee Community Service Award for 2003.
