Four individuals with staff and student connections to Buena Vista University are among 118 individuals who will receive a 2012 Governor’s Volunteer Award in ceremonies on June 13 at BVU.

Both Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds are scheduled to participate in the program which starts at 3 p.m. in Anderson Auditorium in the Siebens Forum. BVU is one of six regional locations around the state to host award ceremonies this month.

Those scheduled to receive awards include:

Donna Musel, director of BVU’s Center for Academic Excellence, who has led and coordinated a food distribution program in Storm Lake and has been instrumental in recruiting students as volunteers.

Durant Freeman, a May graduate in management from Park Forest, Ill., who coordinated BVU’s Cultural Leadership Conference and recruited over 60 student volunteers to assist with the conference. 

Jessica Thuma, a junior international business, Spanish and management triple major from Woodstock, Ill., a coordinator of the BV Buddies program who has helped recruit 40 BVU students to serve as mentors for Storm Lake Middle School students. 

Reid Zimmerman, who was a BVU management major from Kimballton.  He volunteered with The Bridge of Storm Lake, a community outreach organization, helping with food distribution and teaching English.

They were nominated by Dr. Ashley Farmer-Hanson, director of civic engagement at BVU and a member of the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service.

The Governor’s Volunteer Awards program was created in 1982, with inaugural awards presented in 1983.  What began as a small program only available to state government agencies has expanded over the years and now provides all Iowa nonprofit, charitable and government organizations with a way to honor their volunteers with a prestigious state-level recognition award.

Several hundred volunteers are recognized each year with awards in one of several categories: Individual, Group, Length of Service or Disaster Volunteer.

The program is coordinated by the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service and the Governor’s Office. A complete list of 2012 award recipients is available at www.volunteeriowa.org/awards.