2002 Service Award Winners
KENT SHAW
Kent joined our club in 1994 and it didn't take us long to recognize his talents. He was elected president of DVOA for the years 1998 and 1999. He did a great job as president, but has contributed even more as the DVOA webmaster. Our website is one of the best among O clubs and Kent is continually adding information and photos to make it even better.
Another of his important activities is serving as club statistician. As soon as meet directors get the information to him he gets the results of local events on the web. He's also the one who crunches the numbers and reveals the rankings each year, all neatly categorized by age, sex, course, or however you want it. He even figures out how many km we've traveled as a club, then tells us how many times we've climbed the equivalent of Mount Everest, the total number of controls we've punched, and the relative course difficulty at all our events.
Kent has probably done a lot of other behind-the-scenes jobs we don't even know about, as he's always willing to help however he can at local and national events.
Kent lives in Phoenixville, near Valley Forge park, with his wife Jean O'Conor (DVOA member since 1984) and is a Technical Marketing Engineer with Wind River Systems.
THE DENNIS PORTER FAMILY
The Porters first joined DVOA in 1994, having first been introduced to orienteering through the O' Patrol. Janet is active in Girl Scouting, as is Corinne. Dennis is an electrician, but better known in DVOA circles for his barbecue expertise. Those sausage sandwiches are the hit of many events and help raise funds for the juniors. Janet has written several articles for the magazine Orienteering/North America, and has helped with fundraisers and training events for the junior team. The entire family pitches in at local events, as meet directors or helping with control retrieval, registration, or whatever is needed.
Corinne is a high school senior and, after graduation, plans to spend a year in Sweden with a friend she met through orienteering, attending a high school there and sharpening her skills on their school orienteering team. She has traveled overseas for the past three summers, participating in O events in Czechoslovakia, Finland, and Sweden. She has been the Junior Women's champ for DVOA and a member of the US Junior team.
Ryan had his first overseas experience this past summer when he went to the Fin 5 in Finland and the O'Ringen in Sweden with the junior team. He received the "most improved" award for juniors at last year's winter meeting.
The Porters are a good example of an entire family involved in our sport.
THE BOB PUTNAM FAMILY
The Putnam family first joined DVOA in 1975 after hearing notice of one of our events on a Reading radio station. Daughter Kate was one year old and did her first courses from a vantage point on Bob's back. As time went on, the entire family became involved. Janet often helped with registration, while Bob scouted new locations and did map revision.
Bob was club president from 1982 through 1984. These were formative years for DVOA. With much trepidation, we decided to host our very first A meet, in 1982 at French Creek West. It was a great success, with an attendance of about 700, which is a record that stood for many years. Oldtimers still talk about the wonderful Pennsylvania Dutch dinner on Saturday night.
Bob, an acoustical engineer, devised our first ranking system (statistician's note - it's still in use), with a formula so complicated that few of us understood it. He provided the plaque when the DVOA/Quantico "duel meets" were started in 1981. It was devised from a weathered board from an old barn, with a handhewn nail holding in place a cracked compass, and became known as the Broken Compass Award.
Daughter Anne was born in 1984 and again the backpack carrier was put into use. Bob continued mapping activities, making the first Nolde map, and he and Kate made the map for a permanent course in north-central Pennsylvania near the home of relatives. Kate, along with Matt Scott and Clem McGrath, took advantage of a junior mapping grant from USOF and fieldchecked the Daniel Boone Homestead map. Bob served USOF as coordinator of foreign mappers, as course consultant for the 1997 Veterans World Cup held in Minnesota, and continues to serve on the USOF course consulting committee. He served as a DVOA trustee starting in 1989, but resigned when a new job necessitated a move to Orlando, Florida in 1991.
Once there, the Putnams soon revitalized the Florida Orienteering Club. The club produced more maps, hosted and A event, and selected the manatee as their club mascot. Kate graduated from college with a major in geography and is now a cartographer for Universal Maps, Inc. Anne is a junior in high school and helps with local club events. The Putnams continue to contribute to the growth of orienteering in Florida, as they did in DVOA.
