If you’ve got a boss, a subordinate or a colleague who can do the bureaucratic version of leaping tall buildings in a single bound each day every day, consider this:

Would you like him, or her, (or you) to get $2,500, an all expense paid trip to, and deluxe tour of, Washington, D.C., a plaque and all sorts of other goodies? There is a way. You can nominate them (or get somebody to nominate you) for the GEICO Public Service Awards. They are presented every year in May to five outstanding feds (4 still working, 1 retired) for outstanding service in the fields of physical rehabilitation, traffic safety and accident prevention, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and fire prevention and safety.

Winners (and family members) in each category are whisked to Washington for five days of feasting, VIP tourist treatment and then a banquet. This year’s winners not only got box seats to a Nationals game, but they also got to throw some heat (more or less) from the pitchers mound to the Nats catcher. And they got to keep the ball! It doesn’t get much better than that.

For more information, including a nomination form, click here.

This year’s ceremony was at the National Archives. Guests got to eat and drink, mix and mingle, in the room right next to the Bill of Rights and other priceless documents. Again, it doesn’t get much better than that.

In addition to footing the bill for the travel, tours and the event itself, GEICO President/CEO Tony Nicely presented a check for $30,000 to Robert Tobias and Steve Bauer of the Federal Employees Education and Assistance Fund. Tobias is former president of the National Treasury Employees Union and one of the founders of FEEA. Bauer is the guy who flies around the country, sometimes with a suitcase stuffed with cash money, to help feds in need.

FEEA is a feds-oriented charity that gives loans, awards and grants to feds in need. It helped thousands after Katrina and the hurricanes that followed.

FEEA also gave, and continues to give, full-ride scholarships to the children of feds who were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing and the attack on the Pentagon. They get full tuition to any school they can get in. Period. No catches.

GEICO, Blue Cross and other corporations help fund FEEA along with the payroll contributions of many federal and postal workers.

The winners, all from West of the Mississippi, of this years’ public service awards:

Frank Kelley, Air Force Safety Center at New Mexico’s Kirtland Air Force Bases.

Frank M. Deshazo, Brooken Volunteer Fire Department, Haskell County, Okla.

        Read more: Mike Causey

Terrence D. Bonner, Customs and Border Patrol, Yuma, Ariz.

Terence Jenkins, assistant fire chief, Marine Corps Logistics Base, Barstow, Calif.

Randi B. Woodrow, section chief physical therapy at the Greater Los Angeles.

Top brass from the Air Force, Marine Corps and the winners agencies were on hand to honor and acknowledge the winners.

As one of the winners said, this is a week they will never, ever forget.

One sour note:

The gecko was a no-show. Or if he did he’s probably still hiding behind that on-loan copy of the Magna Carta.

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

There are some 97,000 Americans who are at least 100 years old.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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