Howard Kohn named volunteer of the year
The Maryland Recreation and Park Association named Howard Kohn its 2015 Community Volunteer of the Year on April 16, during National Volunteer Week. The statewide award, presented at a ceremony in Ocean City, is presented annually to recognize outstanding volunteer service to community parks and recreation program.
Kohn is a familiar face around town, on soccer fields, in city gardens and community festivals, and is known for pitching in just about everywhere he goes. The Recreation Department knows him as a model volunteer who encourages others to pitch in as well.
On the sports scene Kohn was one of the original organizers of the local youth baseball and softball league, the youth soccer league, the winter basketball league and the adult coed softball league. He’s still a soccer commissioner and the baseball fields coordinator, and “Team Howard” still plays softball, with Kohn occasionally “pitching” in as emeritus coach.
On the civic scene Kohn was in the forefront of the campaign for the community center, chaired the Recreation Committee for many years and helped revive the Takoma Foundation. He’s also been active in the Takoma Junction revitalization, the Old Town “main street” effort and upkeep of the woods between Piney Branch Elementary and Takoma Park Middle School. He also helped lead the fight for the new Blair High School and served at Blair as a soccer coach and PTSA officer
At present Kohn is a member or organizer of the Independence Day Committee, Community Health and Empowerment through Education and Research (CHEER), Takoma United for an Engaged Community, MLK Service Day, the Celebrate Takoma festival, the Ready-by-21 Youth Collaborative and the Takoma Park Commemoration Commission. His most recent passion is as a weekend teacher at the youth demonstration gardens on Community Center grounds.
Over more than 30 years as a Takoma Park resident, Kohn has led by example, engaging other volunteers and helping to create a vibrant, engaged community here in this small city. As staff members of the Takoma Park Recreation Department, we congratulate him on this well-deserved award and extend our most sincere thanks for his continuing and generous contribution of time and talent to our programs, and to the community at large.
This article appeared in the May 2015 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.
