Courtesy Photo Youth Volunteer Corps Alpena director Catherine Knoch was named the organization’s Program Director of the Year last month. Knoch, pictured center in a green T-shirt, is pictured with award winning youth during programming from this summer.

ALPENA — On October 15 & 16, 2021, the Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC) network came together to learn and celebrate. This year, YVC’s annual Summit, a network-wide conference, went virtual. The conference included a full day of workshops and networking and ended with a YouTube Live awards ceremony.

The Program Director of the Year was awarded to Catherine Knoch, who oversees the YVC Alpena program. The YVC program is hosted by the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena and is a vital part of the Club’s leadership development and community involvement programming initiatives.

“Catherine has been an inspiration to work with and does so many wonderful things for the youth and community. Her hard work, dedication and her innate ability to bring together community resources does not go unnoticed. Everyone at the Club is proud to work with Catherine and share this prestigious award with her and the youth volunteers. The community is lucky to have a leader like Catherine teaching the next generation vital civic involvement and leadership skills. These types of skills define a strong community and Catherine goes above and beyond to make sure our community’s young people acquire just that.” Bradley Somers, Boys and Girls Club of Alpena executive director, said.

During the awards ceremony, 83 youth were recognized with the 100-in-1 Award, 18 from Alpena, for contributing 100 hours of service to their community in the span of one year. Ten youth were honored with the Ethic of Service Award, two from Alpena, for completing at least 500 service hours in their volunteer career. Two youth received the Legacy Award for donating 1,500 hours of service in their communities. Gabriel, a dedicated youth volunteer from Alpena was awarded Youth Volunteer of the Year for completing 419 hours of meaningful service in one year.