D. Perry Kidder of St. Anthony Park received the 2008 Ed Stevens Volunteer Award at Fairview Community Center. The annual award is given in honor of Ed Stevens, whose vision, dedication and perseverance was instrumental in the founding and success of North Suburban Senior Council, Roseville Area Senior Program and Minnesota Senior Federation. Dennis Gerhardstein, in nominating her, said: “D. has a dedication and passion for making things better if not perfect. She cares deeply about how organizations and ideas are presented to the public and devotes her training as a journalist to this endeavor with all her might.”

Peter Wyckoff, former director of the Minnesota Senior Federation, presented the award to Kidder, current chairman of the NSSC Public Relations committee and a member of the NSSC board of directors. She recently was elected to the Senior Caucus board of directors and appointed to the metro-wide Patient Council by HealthPartners. “I have known D. for just about all of my professional life,” Wyckoff said. “Her interests range from poetry to prose, from transit to trees, from politics to peace. She has been a leader for decades on transit issues, serving 25 years on Metro Transit’s Advisory Committee on Transit, including serving as its vice president and secretary. I got to know D. primarily through her work with the Senior Federation. She is active in politics and has volunteered at both the Roseville and St. Anthony Park libraries. She helped found several more organizations and served on those and many other boards.”

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Kidder is a retired editor, writer and public relations specialist. In the past she has served three terms as president of NSSC; as branch president and state president of the Minnesota Branch, National League of American Pen Women; as vice chair and secretary of the Advisory Committee on Transit; as trustee, secretary and area vice president of the Minnesota Senior Federation and chair of its editorial board; and as vice president of the St. Anthony Park Library Association. She has volunteered thousands of hours to those and many other organizations.

She has previously been honored with awards from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators, the Minnesota Senior Federation, the Neighborhood Press Association and the North Suburban Gavel Association.