Recognizing Outstanding Community Service

Photos: Lewis Stewart

PG&E has given the Mielke Awards annually since 1986 to recognize employees who have performed outstanding community service. The award is named in honor of former PG&E Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Mielke, Jr., known for encouraging employees to support the community, an important value that continues today.

Last year, employees voted online and via text message to select one of the recipients to travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in a ceremony to honor winners of the prestigious Jefferson Award. This national award for public and community service was established in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and several other distinguished leaders.

In 2009, there were five Mielke Award Winners. PG&E donated $5,000 to each of the non-profit organizations for which they volunteered.

Dave Kelly is a lineman in Willows. For six years, he has devoted thousands of hours to the nearby Durham community as a volunteer firefighter—the last two as department chief. Kelly also provides training to firefighters about downed power lines, safety issues and dealing with emergency situations. Kelly also was a reserve Glenn County sheriff's deputy and a reserve Chico police officer for 12 years.

Robert Kinports is a senior procurement specialist at Diablo Canyon Power Plant. For the past nine years, he has used his leadership skills to benefit GALA, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance on the Central Coast. Kinports was instrumental in securing funding for a new LGBT community center in downtown San Luis Obispo. He also chairs GALA's Pride Week activities and has developed an endowment fund for its day-to-day operations.

Chester Livingston is a senior account executive in the Service and Sales department. He has been involved with the Oakland Babe Ruth League for the past 10 years as a manager of a team of 14- to 16-year-olds and as the organization's vice-president. Livingston created and implemented the Pathway to College program for teenagers in the league who maintain at least a B- average in school.

Garrett Maddex is an apprentice coordinator and a part-time instructor at PG&E's Livermore Training Facility. For the past five years, he has served as a volunteer firefighter for the Oakdale Fire District, where he and his colleagues respond to structure and vegetation fires, medical calls, water rescues, vehicle accidents and other emergencies. Maddex was named Oakdale's Volunteer Firefighter of the Year for 2008.

Ken Trinh is a recruiter with PG&E's Customer Care organization and also manages the company's summer internship program. For the past six years, he has tutored hundreds of at-risk students through the OASES program in his home town of Oakland. Trinh uses his own disadvantaged childhood—and graduation from U.C. Berkeley—to inspire kids who are faced with gangs, drugs and violence every day.