This year, we had four outstanding local individuals receive “Spirit of the Workforce” awards. They were nominated by their peers, and a selection committee reviewed all applications and found them to be the winners. They received their recognition at the end of our energy summit.
Our first spirit of the Workforce winner was nominated by Chevron. Seth Payne has been a production specialist with Chevron for the past five years, but he’s only been in Carlsbad for a year. He was nominated by Beverly Allen, who tells us that all six family members helped at the Carlsbad Community Kitchen and helped build a habitat at Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge. In fact, a few weeks before Seth moved to Carlsbad, he and his family came down for a food drive. Seth also gives back to his Carlsbad Chevron team be making sure they are safe with proper work methods and training.
Our next deserving recipient was nominated by Bernadette Granger with Flogistix, who tells us that Jessica Larez, a purchasing assistant, has been with Flogistix for the past two years. When joining the team, maintaining inventory was a challenge, but Jessica devoted her strong organizational skills and was able to make major improvements.
She also serves as the Carlsbad office volunteer coordinator for a new program called FloGive. She and JoAnna Allen organized a school supply that was able to stuff 144 backpacks to the Assistance League of Carlsbad.
Next on our list is Charles Beauvais, who was nominated by Tina Tiffany and Curis Blaik. Charles is an environmental engineer who has been with ConocoPhillips for four years.
Charles has been a strong supporter of the Desert Willow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, where he helped build safety enclosures, repair fence lines and help with annual clean-ups, as well as secure a donation to the center on behalf of ConocoPhillips. He recently presented to children about what it is like to be an environmental engineer. His nominators tell us that his passion for environmental work, commitment to safety and positive personality are infectious.
He has engaged multiple disciplines and teams within ConocoPhillips to ensure that equipment inventory is accurate while ensuring fieldwork is all done safely.
The final recipient was Ray Ray Chavez, who is a mechanics lead with Crestwood Midstream. Ray Ray was nominated by Ricco Martinez and has been with Crestwood for five years.
Rico shared a story where there was an issue at the plant and Ray drove to the plant and continued to lend a hand. He wound up working from 3:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. because he wanted to make sure that everything was done right and the issue was resolved.
In his free time, Ray greets people who are participating in the annual Christmas on the Pecos boat tour. He came up with the idea last year to help needy families in Carlsbad and the annual Christmas Blessing wound up helping out more than 100 local families. For years Ray has also worked with groups like Toys for Tots and Christmas Anonymous.
Thanks again to our selection committee: Aaron Emmert, Anthony Foreman, Tracy Hughes, Cindy Bryan and Clint Cone. We hope the “Spirit of the Workforce” will be something that continues for a long time.