IBS Staff Member Recognized For Volunteer Weather Observations

I received this from a friend of mine living in Iowa.

IBS Staff Member Recognized
Ida Higgins, paraeducator at Iowa Braille, was honored for her contributions
by the
National Weather Service Volunteer Program.
Recognizing 26 years of service to America, NOAA's National Weather Service
recently
named Ida Higgins a 2006 recipient of the agency's John Campanius
Holm Award for outstanding service in the Cooperative Weather Observer
Program. Named
for a Lutheran minister who was the first person known to have taken
systematic weather observations in the American Colonies, the award is the
agency¹s
second most prestigious. Only 25 out of approximately 11,700 volunteers
receive the award each year.
Steve Kuhl, meteorologist in charge of NOAA¹s Quad Cities office in
Davenport presented
the award at a ceremony on August 16 at the Iowa Braille School,
where Ida works as a Paraeducator. Program manager Michael Zenner of the
Quad Cities
office nominated her for the award.
Ida has been a Cooperative Weather Observer in Vinton since May of 1980 and
her observations
serve as a source of weather data for media in Waterloo, Cedar
Rapids and Oelwein.
General David Johnson, NWS Director in Washington D.C. states, "Cooperative
Observers
are the bedrock of weather data collection and analysis. Satellites,
high speed computers, mathematical models and other technological
breakthroughs have
brought great benefits to the Nation in terms of better forecasts
and warnings. But without the century-long accumulation of weather
observations taken
by volunteer observers, scientists could not begin to adequately
describe the climate of the United States. We cannot thank Mrs. Higgins
enough for
her years of service to America."