Published: September 17, 2008 12:53 am      

CITY OF LOCKPORT: Spedding wins Bette Dale Service Award

Longtime volunteer tax preparer Jim Spedding is this year’s recipient of the Bette Dale Service Award by the Dale Association.

Spedding is being honored for his 20 years of involvement with AARP Tax-Aide Program, the Dale’s free income-tax preparation service for senior citizens.

For the past 15 years, Spedding has been the lead program instructor as well as a counselor, meaning he trains and certifies other volunteer tax counselors, organizes their appointments and personally checks everyone’s work before tax forms are forwarded to the Internal Revenue Service.

Year in and year out, from January through April, it’s Spedding’s steady job — and he’s shown no inclination to “retire” despite his age, 79, and his status as a prior retiree of both the U.S. Air Force and General Motors/Harrison Radiator Division. In 2008, Spedding’s tax counselor corps prepared 910 tax returns for community residents.

“It’s like any other volunteer work; the satisfaction works both ways,” Spedding said. “Doing somebody’s taxes and not charging them for it makes them happy, and that makes me happy.”

In professional retirement since 1989, Spedding has built an impressive volunteer resume that includes stints as: a medical secretary for Sisters Hospital Head and Neck Center for nine years; a health insurance peer counselor for the county and state Office For The Aging for six years; a retiree activities coordinator for the Niagara Falls Air Reserve base for six years; and past trustee of the Lockport Senior Centre Board of Directors in times when fund-raising was needed to improve facilities.

Spedding takes on difficult worker-bee tasks and does them well, said Maureen Wendt, director of marketing and development for the Dale Association.

“You don’t always know he’s in the room, he goes about things so quietly,” she said. “But you know he’s doing the work — and so much more. ... Jim is so humble and just so super. He’s very deserving of this award.”

The Bette Dale Service award, named for the Senior Centre’s first executive director, goes to an individual or group who show a commitment to the older adult community.

Spedding and his wife, Helen, live in the Town of Lockport.

The Dale Service award is one of six being presented to volunteers and aging services professionals at this year’s Dale Association annual meeting Sept. 25. These awards also will be presented:

• The Teamwork Award: Lockport Town Councilwoman Cheryl Antkowiak, state Trooper/volunteer tax aide David Killion, and the city business American Concrete, all for demonstrating outstanding commitment to the Dale.

• Millicent Russell Award: John Kinnear, executive director of Health Association of Niagara County Inc. HANCI and the Dale teamed up to create Complete Senior Care, a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly that’s set to launch next year. Retired nurse Millicent Russell was the first volunteer executive director of the Golden Age Club, which evolved into the Senior Centre. Wendt said the award is newly created as a memorial to Russell, who died recently.

• Lorraine Brady Award: Chris Richbart, director of the Niagara County Office For The Aging, for his work with senior issues. Lorraine Brady was a retired school teacher who taught bridge at the Senior Centre for more than 25 years; upon her death, according to Dale Association Director Linda Van Buskirk, she left the Dale a sum of money that allowed construction of a mental health wing in the Ontario Street facility.