Hero of the Month celebrates first winners

Earlier this month, Tompkins Trust Company (TTC) and the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce announced the launch of the Community Hero of the Month Awards, which recognize individuals from the county who have “significantly impacted our community,” according to a recent press release.

The first award winners are Deputy County Administrator Amie Hendrix, County Communications Director Dominick Recckio, Public Health Director Frank Kruppa and County Administrator Jason Molino. The four will receive a Community Hero of the Month plaque and a few surprise items from TTC.

New winners will be announced on a monthly basis, with the awards planned to continue for at least the next year.

TTC President and CEO Greg Hartz explained that the inspiration behind the awards came from Katie Shaw, TTC’s marketing and community relations specialist. Hartz explained that many at TTC wanted to recognize those who are doing so much to help the community during COVID-19, and Shaw proposed the Community Hero of the Month Awards to do it.

“One of the lessons from this whole pandemic is just how resilient we are as a people and how humans respond to whatever the circumstances are in front of them,” Hartz said. “And this was really a way to lift up some of those people and recognize them because I think when you can publicize those kinds of stories, it’s inspirational for everybody. So, we were looking for a way to do that.”

Jennifer Tavares, president of the Tompkins Chamber, added that she was happy to bring the Chamber in to collaborate on the awards as the Chamber was also hoping for the chance to recognize community heroes.

“There’s certain organizations … that do have annual awards, which are a great opportunity to highlight really incredible achievements of specific businesses or organizations,” she said. “There isn’t as much focus on particular individuals and their work in community service. And so, when our partner Tompkins Trust Company approached us with the idea to partner on this, it was something that the Chamber was really excited to be able to collaborate with them on.”

As far as picking the first winners, Hartz explained that it ultimately came down to who really led the county’s efforts to combat COVID-19 from the start.

“If you go back a year, and I remember in our own company, it came so quickly. And then, every day was just new information, new things you had to think about in terms of your employee safety, customer safety, community safety,” he said. “And they had this not just for their own group, but they had to consider this for everybody. … Their lives were pretty hard, so I think it’s a little bit of public recognition for the great job that they’ve done.”

To hear the winners tell it, the recognition is certainly appreciated, but they’re not the only ones deserving of praise.

All the winners shared how their lives and their work dramatically changed once COVID-19 hit the county last year.

“It’s like a roller coaster and a whiplash from a roller coaster where it goes fast, and then there’s a lot of decisions and input that needs to be had, and then it goes slow and then it goes fast,” Molino said. “And you don’t necessarily have any foresight as to when that’s going to change. So, from that perspective, it’s been difficult to shift gears all the time, going back and forth.”

For Kruppa, COVID-19 meant the Health Department had to focus all its efforts on one disease.

“My days have been COVID since January of last year,” he said. “I want to think it was the second weekend of January where we started having weekend calls with the Department of Health about what was coming, and there really hasn’t been a day without COVID work since then. And my attention’s really shifted almost 100% to that.”

Recckio seconded that idea, adding that it was a particular challenge for him to cope with the pandemic after just a few weeks at his job in county government.

“Almost my entire experience working here has been related to COVID-19 response,” he said. “I started out joining the Emergency Operations Center and have slowly gotten used to having a wider role as communications director, so it’s been rewarding to work on the pandemic. It makes me excited to see what’s next to work with other departments and on the county’s overall messaging moving forward, but it’s really been marked by the pandemic experience so far.”

Hendrix added that the pandemic has taken its toll on award winners and their families.

“We all spend a lot of time together, but that also means that our families aren’t seeing us as much as they normally would,” she said. “We definitely all see each other probably more than our families, and that is another sacrifice that’s being made on our families.”

All the winners called attention to the fact that they are part of a team of people working to fight the pandemic, so the awards have a greater meaning.

“[There are] many others that have been sitting right beside us as we’ve worked through this, not to mention the people on the ground at the Health Department and our other county colleagues that have stepped up,” Recckio said. “So, [I’m] certainly thankful for the recognition, but I hope it’s an opportunity to recognize the entirety of our team that has really done an amazing job here in Tompkins County.”

Hendrix shared that sentiment.

“I think it has a lot of recipients because we’ve seen people do things differently or a new way, or just really communicate what they’re doing already, because I think there’s a lot of things that happen in Tompkins County that we don’t always see,” she said. “And so, whether it’s during the pandemic or post-pandemic, there is an opportunity to really recognize a lot of individuals and agencies and others in what they’re doing to support all of us.”

Kruppa said that the awards help to highlight the work the Health Department does on a regular basis as well as during the pandemic.

“You don’t hear about us until something goes wrong — that’s the challenge with prevention,” he said. “We are continually working to try to prevent disease and injury in our community and have folks be as healthy as they can be. And if we’re doing our job well, you don’t know we’re doing it. And so, hopefully, this raises some awareness about what we do in the Health Department as we continue to engage in our community on other issues.”

Moving forward, all the winners said the fight against COVID-19 is still very much ongoing, but there are finally signs of an end to the battle. As a result, they all are looking forward to the day when they and everyone they work with get to step away from dealing with the pandemic.

“I want to see all the people that we’ve worked hard with, whether it’s staff or whether it’s our partners, to be able to take the foot off the gas,” Molino said. “There’s definitely a better light at the end of the tunnel than this time last year, and I think we can see that, and we just need to continue to work hard to get there. But I want to see it happen soon. And I want to see some folks be able to relax a little bit, and reflect on the hard work, appreciate it and spend that time with your families.”