Giving brings award winner full circle

Article and Photo
By Christina Plunkett
Jacksonville district

"I feel a great sense of fulfillment when giving to others," said Terri Soucek, an Emergency Management Specialist with Jacksonville District. Tears well up in her green eyes. "It is the most emotional, incredibly wonderful feeling to hear the squeals of delight from the youngsters and see the awe-struck and sometimes tearful faces of the adults when we give to families in need."

Soucek is the district's Community Service Award recipient. The award brings her full circle, because she has now been on both the giving and the receiving ends of charity.

Terry Soucek has seen the benefits of charity from both sides--giving and receiving.

When Soucek and other district employees deliver gift certificates, toys, and clothing to underprivileged families at Christmas, the experience brings back bittersweet memories. Soucek knows what it's like to be in need, having grown up as one of six children in a family living on welfare and desperately poor due to her father's long illness and death when she was 12.

"Because my family was poor, we depended on others for help, such as hand-me-downs from the families I babysat for," said Soucek. The only time Soucek could look forward to playing with a new toy or wearing a new dress was when her aunt would surprise the family with gifts at Christmas. "It's hard to put into words how we looked forward to her visits and gifts," Soucek said.

So it's not surprising that, as an adult, Soucek would want to share with others in need. She was the impetus behind the district's first disadvantaged children's Christmas party in 1986. Working with the Public Affairs Office, who solicited donated gifts from local businesses as part of the district's community outreach program, Soucek helped coordinate the party at a downtown church for 25 underprivileged families located through the Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS). She also led the year-long bake sales that provided the funds to buy most of the gifts. At the party, the families received food baskets, filled Christmas stockings and toys for the children, and had the opportunity to take a photo with Santa.

By 1990, this dedicated group had evolved into the "Castle Crafters," adding crafts to their baked goods sales. Their mode of helping also evolved from the Christmas party for HRS families, to aiding several different organizations including HRS, Dreams Come True, local nursing homes, and any district employee and their family that experience hard times.

The district's reputation for helping others through the Castle Crafters has spread throughout the community, and Soucek now receives calls about people who are in need long before the holidays. "I am proud to say that, in all these years, the district has never turned anyone down," Soucek said.

During the years, while this dedicated group of bakers and crafters grew, Soucek's career also grew. She joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1979 as a clerk-typist in the district's Word Processing Center. She performed administrative duties in Information Management and Regulatory divisions, compiled manpower reports for Resources Management, and was a procurement clerk in Contracting before joining Emergency Management (now Readiness Branch) in 1990.

Today, Soucek handles all the financial responsibilities for Readiness Branch including managing the operating budget and coordinating Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars from procuring funds to closing-out disaster missions. Soucek's early struggles toughened her for the sometimes round-the-clock hours, and kept the underlying need to help always in the back of her mind.

She is happy to now be on the giving rather than receiving end, but she is quick to give credit to the district's other dedicated crafters and bakers and to all employees who purchase the goodies throughout the year. "Without the districts' and crafters' support, we couldn't help the needy as we do," Soucek said.

District people help in other ways as well. Last holiday season, when Hurricane Georges ravaged Puerto Rico and Soucek's long hours made it difficult to finish craft items to sell for the group, other employees stepped in to ensure that enough craft and baked goods were available for the usual huge, two-room, sale. And Soucek was there, helping with the sale, buying and wrapping presents with funds raised, and personally delivering the gifts to the needy families' homes. "Nothing compares to helping these people, because every part of what we do to bring some cheer, I've experienced," Soucek said.