Volunteer of the Year - American Vaulting Association

The AVA Volunteer of the Year award was started in 1997 to recognize our most active and dedicated volunteers.
The Volunteer of the Year award is done by your voting and the votes are not accumulated from previous years. If the person you chose last year did not receive the award, vote for them again this year.
What would we do without our volunteers!!
Who has gone the extra mile!!
Who is always there to help year after year!!

Closing date for submission of your 2008 nomination is July 9, 2008
Email cbeutler@sbcglobal.net or snail mail to Carol Beutler, 2780 Goodwin Ave., Redwood City, CA 94061,

Congratulations to our wonderful Volunteer of the Year winners!

Noel Martonovich, Golden, Colorado
text to come

Shari Stapleton-Smith, Tuscon, AZ
Shari was first and foremost a vaulting mom. She joined the American Vaulting Association about 13 years ago, the proud parent of Jessica Ballenger (now coaching Mt. Eden Vaulters). Over the years she has worn many hats. She helped at many local and regional competitions in California as an judges aide, announcer, gate keeper, office manager, clerk, timer or whatever else needed to be done. At the national competition level, she has been the volunteer and officials coordinator for Nationals as well as office manager for many years, innovating procedures and setting standards. She has attended many AVA Annual Meetings and has been on the AVA Board of Directors. Her help has been invaluable on the AVA Auction Committee. With her at the helm, the AVA started the Volunteer of the Year and Mentor of the Year programs. She continues to give her time and support to the AVA. We all appreciate her sweet smile and unending patience. Carol Beutler

Tom Oakes, Albuquerque, NM
When Marge Oakes became AVA Vice President of Competitions, Tom was always at Nationals, waiting to help set up computers and run whatever errands were needed. He always knew where the nearest office supply store was. He did a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make Nationals run smoothly. In 2001 the Caskey/Oakes clan set up the on-line competition registration (http://vaulting.swcp.com). This was a major improvement, saving AVA volunteers hours of manual input. Tom has improved the registration and included a scoring component. Tom does it all from the goodness of his heart and his love of vaulting.

Jan Weber, Groton, MA
Jan has been a force in her region (first Region I, later Region IX) and the AVA since 1993. She has served her region as AVA Supervisor and Regin IX Secretary. For the AVA, she has been VP Development, General Secretary, Publicity Chairperson, Tradeshow and Exhibits Chairperson as well as handling many special projects like insurance. "[The past Volunteer of the Year award winners are] people who have shown me their love of vaulting and our association through their dedication and committment. They are people who understand when a member says 'the AVA should...' it means ' should...'. The AVA is US." Jan Weber

Paul Caskey, Edgewood, NM
Paul Caskey served on the AVA board for two years, and has been instrumental into "taking the AVA into the 21st century" with music formats and equipment. He has been the "music man" for AVA National Championships since 1996, and has provided much of his own equipment for many of those events.

Del and Doris Dyer, Blacksburg, VA
Del and Doris Dyer were the joint chairs for the 1997 AVA National Championships in Tennessee—the first national contest in the Eastern region. Del was a longeur and horse trainer for the Friendship Team for many years, and was always willing and eager to loan his wonderful horses to vaulters in need of a mount at both local and national competitions. Doris was a trusted member of the AVA board for many years. The couple founded Mt. Tabor Vaulters and hosted the team for almost two decades at their ranch in Blacksburg, VA.

Bob Weber, Groton, MA
Bob Weber is the master of the competition vaulting arena—as both the guru of all-that-is-footing, and gatekeeper extraordinaire—for important vaulting events including six past national championships and a myriad of other important competitions, including US selection trial events. Although a respected specialist, Bob is also a true jack-of-all-trades, volunteering for everything from set up to scoring to judge's aide. In his spare time, he also photographs both US and international vaulting events for Vaulting World.

Gary Thwing, Soquel, CA
Gary Thwing, the parent of two Monte Vista vaulters, was always there to help with scoring at any fest, and especially at the National Championships.

Marge Oakes, Albuquerque, NM
Marge has been a tireless supporter of AVA competitions. She chaired the first very successful AVA National Championship held outside the state of California, in 1991 in Albuquerque. She was Region IV supervisor from 1990 to 1992, treasurer for the 1993 National Championships, and VP competitions from 1994 to 2001.

Carol Beutler, Half Moon Bay, CA
Throughout the years, Carol Beutler has worn many hats. A former AVA treasurer and a board member since 1996, Carol was also scoring manager for the National Championships since 1987, a former competition secretary, and high point committee chair from 1994 to 1998.

Marianne Rose Saratoga, CA
Marianne Rose has been involved with Vaulting World for the past three decades, as editor of the AVA's official magazine since 1991, and as a production coordinator for a decade before that. She is also a former AVA VP, current AVA board member, Region II communications director, and manager of many local through FEI level competitions. Rumor has it that at many fests Marianne has discovered how to clone herself, so that she can play the roles of competition manager, Vaulting World reporter, and trot coach and longeur (with her trusty horse Pegasus)—all in different places at the same time!