Reston Citizen of the Year Award Ceremony Recap and Thanks

Last Thursday, April 16, 2015 Reston Citizens Association hosted our annual Citizen of the Year Award Ceremony and Reception honoring Marion Stillson, 2014 Reston Citizen of the Year.

Little did we know that Marion is one of the most popular folks in our community! This probably has something to do with her over 40 years of service to others in her roles as an activist, an attorney and a leader in local, regional, national and international causes.

Over 60 fellow citizens, family and friends gathered at the Reston Community Center Hunters Woods’ Community Room to celebrate Marion’s numerous contributions to making our town, our county and our nation a better place. You can learn more about her over 40 years of service to others in this post written before the event.

Couldn’t join us this year? We invite you to view our picture gallery from the event. See a friend pictured? Let them know! Kathy Kaplan, RCA’s 2013 Reston Citizen of the Year, took a set of gorgeous pictures at the event, which can be viewed here. We thank you Kathy!

We are so very appreciative of the speakers who helped make the event special for us, and for Marion:

• Mike Collins, Rep. Gerry Connolly's Office, who also presented Marion with a Congressional Commendation
• Nancy Joyner, Dean and Executive Director of the Lutheran College Washington Semester, former Virginia President and former national Vice President, American Association of University Women
• Ken Fredgren, Chair, Reston Accessibility Committee (RAC), who also presented Marion with RAC's Community Partner Award
• Colin Mills, former President, Reston Citizens Association
• Connie Hartke, SmokiesCabins.com

We’d also like to give special thanks to those who supported the Reston Citizen of the Year event this year via sponsorships and donations. We could not have held the event without their support:

• Leila Gordon and the Reston Community Center for hosting the reception
• The JBG Companies and Bleevit Interactive for their corporate donations
• Harris Teeter (Reston) and Wegmans (Fairfax) for gift card donations for refreshments
• National Realty for printing services
• Tammi & Bob Petrine, for the incredible work they performed in hand preparing all of the refreshments for the reception
• Community members for their individual financial donations and service
• All those who nominated someone for the Citizen of the Year Award
• The three amigos of the RCA Citizen of the Year Committee, Tammi Petrine, Connie Hartke and John Hanley for their time, effort and support of this year’s Chair (Robin Hogan), who could not have planned the event without their knowledge and able assistance.

If you'd like to learn more about Reston Citizens Association and the work we do to promote and protect Reston's founding principles, we'd be pleased to speak with you, your cluster association or group about your priorities for Reston and our ongoing projects. You can email our President, Sridhar Ganesan and we will respond quickly to your request.