About Us | Membership | Contact Us

The Fairfax County Federation of Citizens' Associations requests the pleasure of your company at the Sixty-Fourth Annual Awards Banquet Banquet Program honoring 2013 Fairfax County Citizen of the Year Janyce Hedetniemi Chair of the Board of Supervisors Sharon Bulova, Federation President Rob Jackson, Citizen of the Year Janyce Hedetniemi (holding the Fairfax Federation Cup) and her husband, Moe Hedetniemi Citation of Merit Honorees Tena Bluhm Richard Chobot and Federation President Rob Jackson present Citation of Merit honoree Tena Bluhm with her keepsake Kathy Kaplan Citation of Merit Kathy Kaplan recipient tells a funny story during her accpetance speach/Citation of Merit Kathy Kaplan recipient tells a funny story during her acceptance speech/FONT> Special Gratitude Award Honorees Jim Moran Federation President Rob Jackson speaks to Congressman Moran's service to the county Jim Scott Kate Hanley and Marcus Simon accept Jim Scott's Special Gratitude Award while he takes a long deserved vacation out of the country Frank Wolf Special Gratitude Award recipient Congressman Frank Wolf thanks Stuart Mendelsohn and Federation President Rob Jackson --> Sunday, the twenty-seventh of April, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Tysons Corner 1960 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, Virginia Cocktails 5:30 p.m. Program 6:30 p.m. The 2013 Fairfax County Citizen of the Year Banquet Committee deeply appreciates this year's generous sponsors Reception Sponsor Springfield Town Center Fairfax County Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Program Sponsor Leidos Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh PC Table Sponsors First Home Mortgage/TheAnaTeam Cooley LLP Oak Hill Civic Association University Mall Theaters EnviroSolutions, Inc.

Janyce Hedetniemi, the 2013 Fairfax County Citizen of the Year Janyce Hedetniemi is a consultant in community relations and constituency development. She is the founding Director of the Office of Community Liaison at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Hedetniemi established the Office of Community Liaison in September of 1994; she retired from that position in June of 2002. In her eight years as Director, Ms. Hedetniemi created what is acknowledged as a national model for Federal/Community collaboration. Her work is credited with successful conflict resolution between the NIH and its community on issues ranging from environmental and transportation management to design and implementation of an award winning master plan for the agency’s Bethesda campus. Prior to this position, Ms. Hedetniemi served three Institutes of the NIH in progressively responsible positions involving planning, evaluation, and development. Ms. Hedetniemi was instrumental in the development of two major national biomedical research programs as Coordinator of the 1991 Hunt Valley Conference to Establish a Research Agenda on Women’s Health and of the 1993 Conference to Establish the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer. Ms. Hedetniemi is a Member At-Large of the Fairfax County Planning Commission, a position to which she was appointed in January, 2013. Prior to that, she served as a Member At-Large of the Fairfax County Park Authority Board. She is a member of the Fairfax County Community Revitalization and Redevelopment Advisory Group. Ms. Hedetniemi was the Braddock District representative to the Fairfax County Transportation Advisory Commission for 9 years and chaired the Commission from 2008 to 2010. She was a member of the Tysons Land Use Task Force and Vice-Chair of the Task Force Steering Committee which helped formulate comprehensive plan language for Tysons. She represented Braddock District on and chaired the 2006 and 2007 Fairfax County Bond Referendum Committees. She has been President of the Oak Hill Citizens Assocation since 1997. Ms. Hedetniemi also served as President of the Braddock District Council for two years. She is a graduate of both Leadership Montgomery and Leadership Maryland programs. Ms. Hedetniemi holds a B.S. degree from Carnegie Mellon University where she majored in psychology and English Literature and a M.S. degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana where she majored in counseling and guidance.

Citation of Merit Recipient Tena Bluhm Tena Bluhm was appointed to the Fairfax County Commission on Aging in 2004 by then Braddock Supervisor Sharon Bulova and has chaired the Commission since 2007. The Commission on Aging is a federally mandated body that acts as an advisory council to the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging; conducts public hearings; advocates and represents the interests of older adults; reviews and comments on all community policies, programs and actions which affect older persons with the intent of assuring maximum coordination and responsiveness to older adults. Tena has been instrumental in increasing the Commission’s presence and influence in Fairfax County through speaking on behalf of older adults and the issues of aging before elected officials both county and the commonwealth. Through presentations at Fairfax County Senior Centers, community churches and other organizations, she has educated older adults about services provided by Fairfax County. Tena assisted in the planning and presentation of two major seminars presented by Fairfax County on Universal Design and Creating a Village. She has put a “face” on aging issues in Fairfax County and sought ways to make the county aging friendly. Tena has testified countless times before the Board of Supervisors and successfully saved proposed cuts to aging services. As a liaison for the Commission on Aging, she served on the Building for All Committee and also the Consolidated Community Funding Advisory Council. She continues to lead the Commission on Aging as they work with the Board of Supervisors to implement and monitor the Fairfax County 50+ Action Plan. In 2008, she was named Lady Fairfax for the Braddock District. Tena has also serves her homeowners association. She was elected to her homeowner association in 2000 as a Board member and in 2005 became the association President. She is a member of the Braddock District Council (BDC) where she brought aging issues to their attention by organizing a Braddock District Council Education Seminar about services available to older adults who live in Fairfax County. She was the secretary of the BDC for two years. Mrs. Bluhm worked for 45 years as a Home Care nurse. She is now retired and resides with her husband, Ray, in Fairfax.

Citation of Merit Recipient Kathy Kaplan Kathy Kaplan is an author and naturalist who has lived in Reston for 31 years. She studied at the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland and graduated with her degree in Studio Art from the University of California at Santa Barbara where she specialized in sculpture and lithography. In 1985 she founded Librado Press and continues to publish poetry under that imprint. She added the youth imprint, MAB Books, in 2012. In 2004 Kathy’s middle grade novel, The Dog of Knots, was published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. The Dog of Knots was a finalist in the 2004 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards for Juvenile Fiction in 2005. It was added to the list of Association of Jewish Libraries Notable Books in 2004 and added to the Israel Book Connection list by the Anti-Defamation League in 2007. Kathy was a volunteer at the John Wesley Powell Anthropology Library, Smithsonian Institution, 1990-93 and compiled a map bibliography of their collection Kathy worked three years for the Vernon Walker Education Center as an interpretive naturalist 1995-1998. She also did workshops for Reston Association Teen Camp and Science Camp at USGS 1995-98 in papermaking, white-line woodcut, Japanese brush painting, paper marbling and bookmaking. She designed and sculpted the bronze relief for the September 11 Memorial at Freedom Grove at Brown’s Chapel in Reston. She was co-chair of the Residential, Urban Design and Livability workgroup for RCA Reston 2020 during the first years of the Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force. She wrote the Vision for Herndon Monroe Station area June 2010, and worked on several alternate park designs for Reston Town Center North. Ms. Kaplan conducted Japanese papermaking, poetry, bookmaking and printmaking workshops at Terraset Elementary School 2010-2013. Ms.Kaplan was appointed Chair of the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations’ Library Committee in August 2013 to review proposed changes to the county library system (the Beta Plan), changes that would have degraded county libraries by reducing staff, eliminating educational requirements for librarians, and eliminating Youth Services for all branches. She was awarded the Reston Citizens Association 2013 Citizen of the Year award for her library advocacy in March 2014

The Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations, established in 1940, is the countywide voice for homeowner, civic, and community associations. An all-volunteer organization, The Federation works on issues that impact Fairfax County residents, including education, transportation, the environment, human services, land use, the county budget, and state and federal legislative issues.

PRESS CONTACT: Tania Hosaain, COY Chair, FedCOY2014 @ fairfaxfederation.org Phone: 703-489-5999

about us | membership | Fairfax County | schools | state government | COG | contact us Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations, P.O. Box 3913, Merrifield, VA 22116-3913,