2008 Ryan Awards: Most Valuable Personnel (MVP)

Most Valuable Personnel (MVP)

The MVP award is an award that is reserved for the personnel that is determined to be the most valuable to their position, to their team, to the department or the agency as a whole... as the title would suggest. The greater purpose of this award is not to select just one great personnel but rather showcase several great personnel as there are many who do exceptional jobs and excel at them. The nominees for the 2008 Most Valuable Personnel (MVP) Ryan Award are:

Donna Ramsey, Proctor Case Manager
While always the sail of the Proctor ship, she became the lone crew in Calley's greedy departure with a case load of nearly 20 high-needs children and higher-needs parents. She responded not by crumbling or complaining but by helping a foster family by going to their house at 7am to watch the kids as the parents had to go to work; also by working on weekends for several weekends in August and September to stay afloat in paperwork; and ultimately skipping her sister's birthday party in order to prevent a staff shortage at Support Group. Granted, her wisdom and responsibility goes hand-in-hand with her far superior age, but let not that cheapen the value that Donna has in Foster Care; specifically Proctor.

Bobby Martin, BRS Case Manager
Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Erik the Red, Santa Claus: they all have the necessary traits of great leaders, generals, pioneers, icons... and beards. In any discussion about the most valuable personnel, such traits must be discussed, and in this discussion one man alone meets these criterion. His name? Bobby "Brown" Martin. Despite the "Brown" (which is purely for alliteration purposes), Bobby's beard has gotten him praise through Spirit Notes, lust from enviers and acceptance through radical revolutionary groups and the bridge-dwelling community alike. He is able to blend and rally all peoples from all walks of life with the majesty of his crumb-collector and those traits, in addition to his commanding role in the BRS program, make him a great contender for the 2008 Most Valuable Personnel (MVP) award.

Heather Brey, former Foster Care Asst. Manager
It takes a lot of patience and understanding to work at Kerr. It takes even more of both to have any role in running a program at Kerr. Heather took the reigns, by default, in Foster Care after her arrival and the subsequent departure of 90% of the staff, including the manager. With little to no direction and a handful of brand new staff, Heather was able to mold and settle the foundation of Foster Care; rebuilding the program after an unheard of collapse following the John era. Despite multiple emotional and vehicle break downs, the one thing that didn't break down was the persistence to make the program strong and self-sufficient yet again. Heather succeeded in the challenge and constructed a strong program... that may fall whim to the lack of infrastructure of the future. From an astounding amount of Ryan Award nominations to an Honorable Mention in the Office Olympics, Heather has yet to reach the top of the mountain despite the hard climbing but she still holds faith and courage in herself and her abilities and those elements are definitely MVP elements.

Boone Langston, MIS Technical Support
When any discussion is held about anyone of value in anything of value, the name Boone Langston must come up, like comments about the heat on a hot summer day. One of the longer-running Kerr folks, Boone has been in operation for over 2 years and is 1/2 of MIS Technical Support. On average, he serves as the go-to guy for over 400 employees when things go wrong technologically... which is fairly regularly. Without Boone, MIS would indeed stumble. Plus, he must be super busy with other important matters if it takes him over 3 months to put "Yor: the Hunter from the Future" onto DVD when he already has it on the camcorder, he just needs to put it onto a disc. That is all. 10-15 minutes is all it would take. A simple 10-15 minutes... over the span of over 90 days... 10-15 minutes is all it would take but Boone Langston shows his value not only to Kerr and to his home-life but also to furthering his education. It is for these reasons that Boone Langston is a worthy nominee for the MVP award... despite his delay on putting "Yor" on DVD.


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