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| Photo: Chris Riley, The Gilroy Dispatch |
Life service
Somebody who's racked up thousands of hours of community service has either been very bad or very good. SLAC carpenter Michael Hughes has been very, very good. Having volunteered more than 6000 hours of service over the past 34 years, Hughes recently received the President's Call to Service Award, presented by Acting Under Secretary of Energy Dennis Spurgeon. The award honors those who have given at least 4000 hours of service in a lifetime.
Hughes' volunteer career began almost accidentally, after he enrolled in an adult education woodshop course at a local high school. "I first attended the class to work on my personal projects," he says. "Then I started helping people when they didn't know how to do things." For more than three decades he was a class mainstay, spending four hours each week assisting the teacher and helping instruct.
"Woodshop was always a big part of my life," he says. "It felt good to help people make their finished product."
Hughes earned more karmic points volunteering for 25 years at the annual Garlic Festival in his native Gilroy, California. He also volunteers for local Relay for Life chapters, for the Gilroy Police Department, and for special SLAC events.
Alison Drain
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