This post was published on Pilotonline Inside Business on September 30, 2019
Awards and honors
The Menchville High School student group called Fare Share won one of five grand prizes given by the Lead4Change student leadership program, earning a $10,000 grant for Newport News nonprofit THRIVE Peninsula. Lead4Change (formerly Lead2Feed) is a national organization that supports the development of leaders and civic action among students across all 50 states. This was Fare Share’s second grand prize award in five years, having been awarded $51,000 for local nonprofits THRIVE Peninsula and the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank. This was the group’s fifth year participating in the contest. During that time, it has donated over 25,000 pounds of food, raised nearly $15,000 for various causes, created and sustained both a school food pantry and backpack program as well as a school vegetable garden.
The city of Virginia Beach’s Information Technology department has received three Governor’s Technology awards for transforming service delivery and government experience. The program focuses on public sector initiatives that introduce greater efficiency and business value through the strategic use of IT. The following city projects were recognized: The VB Connect voice app, offering citizens easy access to information; Traffic-Data Sharing partnership, for an innovative approach to citizen safety; and Waze Connected Citizens, a free program with a holistic view of road conditions. Virginia Beach was also acknowledged for its participation in a regional flood mitigation initiative.
Virginia Lawyers Media, publisher of Virginia Lawyers Weekly, has named ADS general counsel and executive vice president Adam Casagrande as one of Virginia’s “In-House Leaders in the Law.” Casagrande, who joined the global, Virginia Beach-based gear and equipment supplier in 2016, is among just three in-house lawyers being honored this year by the trade publication. The award recognizes lawyers who are “changing the law, serving the community, and changing practice or improving Virginia’s justice system, among other accomplishments.” 2019 is the first time these awards have been extended to “in-house” corporate counsel, or lawyers who are employed by a Virginia business to work solely on its own in-house legal matters.
William E. Franczek, partner at Vandeventer Black, was recently selected one of Virginia Lawyers Weekly “Leaders in the Law.” Attorneys that receive this distinction have demonstrated a commitment to their profession by lobbying for changes in the law, for impacting Virginia’s justice system and for their involvement in the community. Franczek has been an active member of several bar associations, and he is a past representative of the Virginia Bar Association Board of Governors. He is chairman of the division chairs for the American Bar Association Forum of Construction Law and a Fellow at the American College of Construction Lawyers and the American College of Commercial Arbitrators.
Munson Park in the Norfolk community of Park Place has received an award for the Best New Renovation/Addition for Parks, Playgrounds, Greenways and Trails for a city population greater than 200,000 at the 64th annual Virginia Recreation and Park Society Conference in Tysons Corner, Sept. 7-10. Judges chose winners from 115 entries across 14 categories. Landscape architect Christina Fisher was the project lead on the park’s redevelopment, which includes walking paths, a rope-based playground, new benches and a refurbished basketball court.