Youth Bureau presents annual service award
FROM STAFF REPORTS

PHOTO PROVIDED Pictured above, Steuben County legislative Chairman Philip Roche poses with Cynthia Fitzwater,winner of the county Youth Bureau's 2007 Youth Service Award. At far right: Cora Saxton, chairman of the Youth Board.

BATH - The Steuben County Youth Board recently honored four county residents for their work with area children.

The organization's annual dinner, held this year at the First Presbyterian Church of Bath, awarded Cynthia Fitzwater of Hornell its Youth Service Worker of the Year Award.

Fitzwater is a senior caseworker for the county's Department of Social services Foster Care Unit.

The Youth Board also cited Kelli Bigelow, Cheryl Crocker and Brandace Ridley as honorable mentions. Bigelow is an adoption caseworker for the county Department of social services; Crocker works as supervisor of the Family Court Unit of the county's Probation Department, and Ridley is a social worker in the Adolescent Placement and Aftercare Unit of the Department of Social Services.

In presenting the awards, Cora Saxton, chairman of the Youth Board, said Fitzwater "brought sunshine when there was darkness, hope when there was despair, warmth when there was cold."

Fitzwater joined the Department of Social Services in 1983 and has worked directly with children for nearly 20 years. In 1993, she began a stint as senior caseworker in child protective services, then returned to foster care in 2005.

Bigelow has worked in the same Department for nearly nine years, providing counseling to foster children who are either being adopted or awaiting adopting.

Crocker has worked in the Family Court Unit for 12 years, responding to petitions filed by school,police and parents to protect children from further legal involvement, and Ridley has worked in the Department of Social Services for four years as a caseworker.