Ceremony honors community members

Dee Johnson wiped away tears after being named Employee of the Year at the Community Awards luncheon Friday.

She loves working at the Carson City Senior Citizens Center, where she has been the receptionist for six years.

"I'm touched. The center is wonderful. They're all my friends there," she said. "I can't believe this. I was doubly touched because they wrote so many nice things about me (in the nominations)."

Also honored were the Carson City Symphony; Delsye Mills, organizer of the Carson-Tahoe Hospital Auxiliary's Cowboy Poetry event; Dr. John Bower, as boss of the year; baseball standout Will Bowman; student of the year Cristian Espinoza; Pat Josten as artist of the year; teacher Billie Jo Hogan; and Luke Schober, a Carson City grocery clerk who returned $88,904 he found in a parking lot.

The crowd of 180 gave Schober a standing ovation in the Carson Nugget's upstairs ballroom after he was given special recognition.

"My parents raised me up right," he said. "I didn't have a second thought about returning that money."

Schober leaves for U.S. Marine Corps basic training in September.

Sponsored by the Nevada Appeal and Carson Access Television for the last five years, the awards are given in recognition of residents' outstanding achievements. Similar awards were given by the Chamber of Commerce for the previous 30 years.

Bowman, Carson High School varsity baseball team captain, was named athlete of the year for 2004.

"It was very flattering to be recognized for all the hard work I've put in," he said.

On June 7 he'll being watching the Major League Baseball draft on the Internet - he's already been contacted by 25 teams - then he'll play in the All-American baseball game.

"Hopefully I'll be pretty happy that night," he said, a stack of plaques and certificates in his hands.

Tom Baker, past president for the board of Carson Access Television, was the event's emcee. He explained how the finalists' bios - which he read aloud during the luncheon - had to be edited because of the length of the finalists' accomplishments.

"If you're happy with everything, come up and congratulate me," he joked. "If you're upset and you don't like the way things were edited, see Barry Smith (Nevada Appeal editor)."

During a brief address before the awards were presented, Nevada Appeal Publisher John DiMambro said the nominees were all people of common cause.

"They're not necessarily CEOs of major companies or people with loads of money and influence," he said. "They're people - just people. And great people are what makes a great community."

After soliciting nominees from anywhere in the Nevada Appeal's circulation area, members of the newspaper's reader panel and Carson Access Television's board of directors made the final selections.

All winners received plaques, medals and certificates from Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons and Assemblyman Ron Knecht.

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.