Center in the Park’s (CIP) Board of Directors and staff thank the Northwest Philadelphia community for submitting nominees for its annual Marguerite L. Riegel Award and announces the 2008 awardees. The Awards will be presented at the Board’s Annual Meeting on June 16, 2008.

The Riegel Award for an individual will be presented to C. Richard (Dick) Cox, former President of CIP’s Board for his years of experience and activism in the field of aging. Mr. Cox’s career in philanthropy included service as the Senior Program Officer & Vice President for Programs at the William Penn Foundation, where among other initiatives, he supported the development of housing for low to moderate income older adults. He also was as an aide to Congressman Chaka Fattah, is a retired minister, who is actively engaged at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) and on several boards, including the Chestnut Hill Healthcare Foundation. He has traveled and studied in Israel and led monitoring teams to Haiti and the South African elections in the mid-nineties. A life member of the NAACP, he has received many awards in recognition of his contributions to civil and human rights.

C. Richard (Dick) Cox

The Riegel Award for an organization will go to the George & Hannah Bricker Memorial Trust, administered by the BNY Mellon Corporation, for its long history of providing emergency assistance funds to help older, vulnerable adults remain independent in their homes.

In addition to the Riegel Awards, the Center’s Distinguished Service Award will go to Germantown resident and CIP Volunteer and member, Miss Earline Myrick. Miss Myrick, in her late eighties, continues to lead exercise classes at Center in the Park, where she has volunteered since 1983, after retiring with thirty plus years of service from International Garment. Miss Myrick also shares her skills and enthusiasm as an exercise leader at other senior centers, including the Martin Luther King Center, the Lehigh Center, and Spring Garden Center where she is a crowd pleaser as a model in that center’s annual fashion show. In the 1990 Senior Games, Miss Myrick won the gold medal for walking track, at the age of seventy.

Miss Earline Myrick

The Marguerite L. Riegel Award, named for one of CIP's founders was initiated nearly two decades ago. It was established to honor an individual who has worked continuously to improve the quality of life for older people in Greater Germantown. At the same time, an endowed Emergency Cash Fund was named in memory of CIP’s Co-founder, Laura Drake Nichols. Beginning in 1990, an organization which affirms the dignity and potential of older people and improves the quality of life for elders in Greater Germantown was also selected to receive the Riegel Award.

Marguerite L. Riegel was a community activist who spent her long life working in Northwest Philadelphia. She graduated from Germantown Friends School, established programs at the YWCA of Germantown, served as the first Executive Director of the Germantown Community Council, and founded both the NW Chapter of the AARP and the Center for Older Adults, NW (currently known as Center in the Park).

Past recipients of the award include: Doris Schall, an art teacher and community service activist; Harry Levitan, who started a free law office for seniors at CIP; Virginia Dreby, a CIP Board member, and volunteer with Germantown Settlement and the Women’s Y; the late Clarice Herbert, former Board President of CIP and former Director of the YWCA of Germantown; the late Frank S. Delaney, a community activist and advocate for non-profits; Rennie Cohen, former Executive Director of CIP; Mary Fallon, Outreach Director, Unitarian Universalist House; Nora Dowd Eisenhower, Secretary of the PA Department of Aging; and Organizations: the Germantown Hospital and Medical Center for its partnership with CIP’s Passport to Health Program; and, Northwest Victim Services; Philadelphia Corporation for Aging; Germantown Relief Society; and, the Thomas Jefferson University Center for Applied Research in Aging and Health (CARAH). A plaque with the names of past awardees hangs in the Center. The Center’s Distinguished Service Award has been presented to Artis Ray, former President of the CIP Board of Directors; and, Fred and Carrie Lewis, CIP Members and Volunteers.

Center in the Park is a community center that promotes positive aging and fosters community connections for older adults in Northwest Philadelphia, whose voices are critical instruments in shaping its activities and direction. CIP is accredited by the National Institute of Senior Centers, a unit of the National Council on Aging as a provider of excellent programs, activities and services for its active membership of more than 5,000 and its 1,000 homebound clients.