ODENTON VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY, INC.

1425 Annapolis Road Odenton, Maryland 21113, Phone: 410-674-4444

Proudly Serving the Greater Odenton Community Since 1931

June 10, 2023

To:     Outstanding Member of the Quarter Award Committee

Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association

The officers and members of the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company (OVFC) are very proud to nominate Administrative Member Mary “Tina” Tinsley for the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association’s Outstanding Member of the Quarter Award for the Second Quarter of 2023. 

Tina joined OVFC in March 2018, following her husband Paul who joined in 2016 and daughter Michelle who joined in 2017.  From the very first day, Tina has been a vital part of so many of our fundraising, public relations, and administrative programs.  It’s hard to cover everything she has done for our fire company, but I’ll try.

She has been the chairperson of our blood drives for several years.  She coordinates with the Anne Arundel Medical Center Blood Mobile who sets up in our station parking lot.  She works with our Public Relations Committee to advertise the blood drives and assists the Blood Mobile staff with registration.  We usually have three or four blood drives annually, each attended by about 20 donors.

            Tina is a member of the Banquet Committee.  She attends all the planning meetings, works at the sign-in table during the event, and handles other chores as requested by the chairperson.  She has worked with the Chief for the last four years on gifts for our top ten fire and ambulance responders, which are awarded at the banquet.  She makes suggestions for the gifts, works with vendors, orders the gifts, and arranges payment and pickup of the gifts.

            She is one of the regular crew members for the Thursday night food trucks, selling beverages and helping the patrons.  She keeps in regular contact with the chairperson on staffing and fills in on short notice if needed.  Tina also works the soda stand on most nights of our annual carnival.  She supports the Ladies Auxiliary with their annual Craft Show.  She makes baked goods and provides last-minute support as needed.

            Tina teams up with another member to sell boosters to fund the printing of the annual AACVFA Convention book.  Due to their persistent efforts, Odenton has won the Boosters prize for the last three years, selling over 400 boosters each year.

            Tina works at our semi-annual Bull Roasts. She sells 50/50 raffle tickets during the event, which typically nets the company $900 in profit.  She solicits raffle gifts from local businesses.  She often helps with cooking the day before the Bull Roast and helps with any last-minute tasks.  She supports Odenton Day in October by working in hall, helping in the kitchen and anything else that’s needed.

            Tina has coordinated our Santa runs for the last three years.  She helped to map out the routes for each of the eight nights, organized the engine drivers and two different Santa’s, coordinated Santa’s attendance at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Odenton Heritage Society, and made sure we have enough candy canes.  She received a Challenge Coin from the Chief for all her support for the 2022 Santa runs. 

She has been a member of the Quartermaster Committee for several years and is now the Chairperson.  She coordinates with the Membership Committee and meets with all new members to provide them their initial uniform items (pants and shirt).  She provides them guidance on the next steps in their membership process.

Tina and husband Paul jointly received the OVFC President’s Award for 2021 for their outstanding administrative support to the fire company.  They are affectionally known as “Team Tinsley.”

Feeling like she could do even more for the company, Tina was recently elected as the Corresponding Secretary on our Board of Directors.  This is a very busy job: receiving and distributing all incoming company mail, preparing outgoing correspondence on behalf of the Board of Directors, maintaining the corporate files, and providing a report to the membership at the monthly company meetings.

As the above testimony clearly shows, Mary “Tina” Tinsley is a vital part of our organization, and we wholeheartedly recommend that she receive the AACVFA Outstanding Member for the Second Quarter of 2023.

Respectively submitted,
            Craig B. Harman
             President