Article published Apr 22, 2008

Stefan Anderson honored for lifetime of helping others

By MICHAEL McBRIDE
mmcbride@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — Like at the Oscars, last year’s VIVA Lifetime Achievement Award winner presented this year’s award today.

“He is modest, and I know he will be embarrassed,” industrialist John W. Fisher said about Stefan S. Anderson, a 45-year banker. “But Steve is unprecedented as a successful volunteer.

“The VIVA Award is sort of a crown for his long-standing activities.”

Anderson joked that his own mother had written Fisher’s glowing account of Anderson’s years of volunteer work in Muncie and East Central Indiana.

A half-dozen other volunteers received Very Important Volunteer Awards:

•Elaine Witbeck, a librarian nominated for her work to eliminate poverty, for the thousands of meals she has prepared for the needy, for her work at Habitat for Humanity.

•Clara Rice, a Muncie business woman nominated for 52 years of volunteering at Ball Memorial Hospital, 9,100 hours, the most of any of 595 volunteers, and for volunteering at Minnitrista Cultural Center.

• Carl Malone, a volunteer with youths at the YWCA, in his south side neighborhood, and with the Boy Scouts of America.

• Pat Garafolo, a registered nurse, social worker and Ball State University professor who was instrumental in inaugurating B.S.U.’s life-long learning program, a Katrina, Red Cross volunteer, and member of the cystic fibrosis board.

• Duane Davis and Ron Lahody, longtime volunteers at the Muncie Mission who met 35 years ago as volunteers for Boy Scouts in Gaston.