2005 Jefferson Award Medalists

Manoj Ajmera

Ajmera came to the United States from Mumbai, India, in 1965, settling first in the Midwest before coming to the Capital Region. For the past 38 years, he has played an active role in the community's cultural scene. He is a founding member of the Tri-City India Association, and helped organize the first Festival of Nations 33 years ago. As its chairman for two decades, he has helped expand the annual day of music, dance and food to celebrate the area's diversity. Ajmera has been a member of the Albany Rotary Club for 37 years and worked with the International Center, Boy Scouts of America, the Albany Tulip Queen Selection committee, and WMHT auctions. In 2003, he was named as one of Who's Who of Clifton Park for the town's 175th anniversary.

Balfour has provided continuous service to her friends, neighbors and church. She has been a member of the Columbia Memorial Hospital Auxiliary since 1961. She provides important help to the Northern Columbia Rotary Club, assisting on the club's fall harvest sale and blood drives. At the Chatham United Methodist Church, she is one of a dozen members who provide meals to the sick and shut-ins on Saturdays. Also, she and her husband, Walter, take people out to lunch on a weekly basis so they won't be housebound, and they also take them to doctors appointments. She is a member of the Shaker Museum and a bell ringer for the Salvation Army.

Dennis Francis Irwin

A civic-minded attorney, Irwin has been nominated by Centro Civico HispanoAmericano Inc. in Albany for his work and dedication to the organization since its founding 29 years ago. An Albany Law School graduate, Irwin has provided pro bono legal work and given financial and personal support to the organization's programs. Through the Catholic Charities Refugee Committee, he and his wife housed five Cubans who fled Fidel Castro's regime in 1980. He joined two humanitarian delegations to that Caribbean nation and brought needed food and medicines to Cubans. He has played host to exchange students and is active in Rotary International. Through the years, he has helped nearly 100 inner-city children visit Lake George.

Sam Perkins

Though he is just 14 years old, Perkins embodies an enthusiastic volunteer spirit and a compassionate desire to help others. In the past three years, Perkins raised over $20,000 for local and national charities, including $5,200 by selling bricks for a commemorative walk for the Ballston Spa Junior Baseball League to improve the ball fields. Other organizations that have benefited from Perkins' energy are the Space Shuttle Children's Trust Fund and U.S. Submarine Veterans. He raised $2,500 for the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, which is dedicated to helping end the cycle of domestic violence. This dynamic teenager is now working with the Domestic Violence Services of Saratoga Springs and has applied for grants to get educational materials for use in its school presentations. He also finds time to volunteer at the veterans' shelter in Ballston Spa and was a docent at the State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs. He has also co-founded a student service club which sent holiday packages to American troops in Afghanistan.

Rockwell demonstrated compassion and concern for the less fortunate. She and her husband, Art, were foster parents for many years. She worked at the State Training School and Vanderheyden Hall. In 1989, she was attacked with a hammer and left for dead. She came out of a coma with her right side permanently paralyzed and walks with a brace and cane. She can only use one hand for simple tasks. But instead of expecting help, she expanded her efforts on behalf of others. For 12 years, she has been volunteer coordinator for the Doors of Hope, which raises money and distributes food, clothing and furniture to the needy. She and fellow volunteers feed 100 families monthly, and 180 at Thanksgiving. They provide 22 families with clothing and toys at Christmas. Rockwell is also the volunteer planner for the First Reformed Church's mission to feed the homeless at Joseph's House.

Rozell-Shannon founded the Vascular Birthmark Foundation, which now has national and international chapters. In 1994, when her infant daughter developed a facial hemangioma (a usually benign tumor that occurs as a purplish or reddish slightly elevated area of skin), she realized that there was a lack of information and treatments options for vascular malformations. In the days before the Internet offered an option for searches, she found Dr. Milton Waner in Arkansas who successfully treated her daughter. Rozell-Shannon then teamed up with the doctor to write a book about birthmarks and malformations. She established a Web site, http://www.birthmark.org, which provides information and links about the medical condition. International treatment centers and VBF chapters have been established in Australia, Israel and European countries and efforts are under way to start one in India. More than 10,000 patients have benefited from the knowledge her network offers.

Woods has been a volunteer for the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York since 1992. He began there by soliciting theaters to donate movie and show tickets for people with AIDS. He managed the AIDS buddy program at a time when being diagnosed with AIDS was practically a death sentence. He has served the council in a variety of capacities and has helped raise nearly $100,000 for people affected by HIV/AIDS in crisis situations. Woods is an informal "big brother" to people struggling to survive in the community, a longtime volunteer Employee Assistance Program Coordinator at the state Department of Transportation where he helps fellow workers find community resources to support them in times of need. His gentle nature, trustworthiness and compassion have earned him a place in the hearts of many people.