2023 Iowa Reading Service Award

Posted: June 22, 2023

The 2023 Iowa Service Award goes to Dawn Schechtman from Eastern Iowa Reading Council. Since 2015 Dawn has been a TAG teacher and advocate at West Delaware County Community School District. Her passion has always been reading and literature, and she looks for ways to go above and beyond to provide students with challenges in reading. She is active in many committees to promote school growth and a positive work environment, supporting other teachers 100%.  Dawn has been an active member of her local council for over 20 years, serving as vice president and four times as president and holding a number of other titles. For the past 17 years she has served as her council’s “go-to” technology person, from setting up and maintaining their website to making sure everything runs smoothly at meetings. She kept the council going electronically during Covid by creating a Zoom format for meetings with a Chat format to follow. She made it possible for Creative Writing winners to share their stories on a private YouTube video. She also made possible doing membership online and paying with Venmo, Paypal or checks. The council’s membership list was put on Google Doc and shared with the board. She runs her council’s webpage, contacts speakers, and often judges Creative Writing Contests. Dawn promoted and collected many creative writing entries both at the local and state level. She was a co-chair for the state Creative Writing Contest. She worked with convention vendors to create truly excellent swag bags containing 5 books for winners. She brought fresh ideas to improve the contest, raising the work count for short stories.  Quote, “ Dawn is one of those people you think of when you think of service…She has always given 110% and never asks for anything in return. She has made many sacrifices in her life in order to make a difference in the lives of others.” (Amy Priem) Congratulations!

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