Finance Officers Honored

Twelve Inland Northwest residents received the Professional Finance Office Award from the Washington Finance Officers Association.

The finance officers and their companies are James Plaster, Spokane Transit Authority; Harold Meyers, Spokane County Engineers; Christine McCoy, City of Deer Park; Bradley Johnson, Spokane County Auditor; Shirley Dunsmoor, City of Spokane; Sheila Creekmore, City of Deer Park; J. Ann Geraghty, Spokane County Auditor; Linda Bruce, Spokane County; William Bailey, City of Spokane; Molly Russell, City of Spokane; Jared Schatz, City of Spokane; and Pat Zamora, Spokane Public Schools.

Ginger Collins, Veradale, made Gonzaga University’s President’s Honor Roll for the spring semester.

Steffie Bergstrom recently received her bachelor of arts degree in social work from Eastern Washington University.

Gail Ableman, Cheney, received the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s 1996 Personal Achievement Award for Washington.

The national award recognizes the accomplishments and community service of people with disabilities.

Ableman, who has Friedreich’s ataxia, recently became the first person in a wheelchair to graduate from a program of the Criminal Justice Training Academy in Western Washington.

Mae Schaeffer, Spokane, won first place for her poetry in International Training in Communication at its annual convention of 29 countries in Glascow, Scotland. Her poem, “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow,” is about the children in transition she encounters as a volunteer at the YWCA. She has volunteered there for seven years.

Steven Smith Jr. was named co-recipient of the 1996 American Motorcycle Association’s Pro Scholarship Award. He will use the $1,000 for studies at Gonzaga University, where he plans to study mechanical engineering.

Smith, an expert dirt track racer, was valedictorian of his class at Rogers High School.

Teresa Skinner, an occupational therapist at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, served this summer as the U.S. voting representative to the International Paralympic Committee Sports Technical Assembly for Rugby.

The Paralympics involve more than 3,500 elite athletes with disabilities from 120 nations.

St. Luke’s has also awarded scholarships to students pursuing education in health care: Atom Biggs, family practitioner program at the Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education; Kari Eckberg, physical therapy program at the University of Puget Sound; Timothy Landon, physical therapy program at Eastern Washington University; and Kristin Palpant, nursing program at Whitworth College.

Mary Jo Harvey, executive director of the Spokane Housing Authority, has been recognized for her “creative leadership” by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.

Harvey is one of 11 in Washington state to be recognized with the 1996 Friend of Housing Award, given to those who have shown outstanding support of the affordable housing industry.

Harvey joined the Spokane Housing Authority in 1983 as executive director.

Robert Hunter English, Spokane, received a $300 graduate tuition and fee waiver at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

, DataTimes MEMO: Compiled by Maisy Fernandez. To tell us about your achievements and good deeds, write to Achievements, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210, or 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814.