Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. presented three people with the Governor's Points of Light Award for outstanding service in the community during a ceremony earlier this month at the State Office Building on Capitol Hill. Two of the recipients were from Davis County.
Sarah Hatch, a senior at Northridge High School in Layton accepted an award for her service in the Layton Youth Court, a diversionary juvenile program that allows first-time youth offenders to keep their juvenile record clean. Hatch has served in numerous capacities with the court including president, judge, clerk, bailiff and mentor.
Hatch is also president of Youth of Promise in Davis County, where she is designing a 9/11 memorial at the Kaysville Botanical Gardens.
Lynn Fochs, another Davis County resident, received an award for her continued service of comforting and supporting terminally ill individuals as a hospice volunteer. While volunteering with Rocky Mountain Hospice, she attends in-service training and conferences to increase her skills as a hospice volunteer.
Fochs also visits elderly patients and provides respite care, runs a support group for children who have lost parents to death and visits children who have been taken from their homes. She also volunteers with Capitol Theatre, Abravanel Hall and Rose Wagner Center as an usher.
Huntsman presented a University of Utah student with the Governor's Points of Light Award for encouraging and leading peers in service.
Richard Gary Snow, president of the Bennion Center, the U.'s on-campus service center, has recruited and supports 45 student directors who run 45 student director projects at the center. He also serves as a project director.
At the state level, Snow promotes service and service-learning among college students as chair of the Students Serving Utah Network. He is also a Student Alumni Association board member and volunteers with the Utah-BYU Food Drive and Paint Your Heart Out.
An outstanding volunteer has received the Governor's Points of Light Award each month since former Gov. Mike Leavitt launched the program in October 2000. Recipients are selected from nominations sent in by Utah residents. To view award recipients or to nominate someone for the award, contact the Utah Commission on Volunteers at www.volunteers.utah.gov or 1-888-755-UTAH.