Marie Vincent and Jerry Waters, her husband, have always been active in the community and in their cluster, and originally began their Reston Association volunteer work participating in Community Work Days.
Recognizing their efforts to improve community over the past seven years, the Reston Association (RA) awarded the husband and wife team its "2003 Volunteers of the Year Award."
"This couple is truly an asset to RA. They have given selflessly of their time over and over again and we can't thank them enough," said Ha Brock, RA's volunteer coordinator. "Their talents and hard work have not gone unnoticed and they have made a difference in the Reston community. We are happy to honor them this year," she said.
Brock said that Vincent and Waters dedicated numerous hours providing their expertise and hard work to at least a dozen community projects over a seven-year span.
"Just being able to make a contribution is important to us," said Vincent.
IN NOVEMBER 1996, Vincent attended her first facilities advisory committee meeting as a prospective member. The following year, she was elected chair of the committee, and has held that position ever since. Last week, the facilities advisory committee unanimously voted to nominate her for a seventh term.
"Marie is fantastic," said Joe Stowers, former chair of the Reston Citizens Association planning and zoning committee who has worked with both Vincent and Waters as a community volunteer. "She's the best organized volunteer I know. She follows through to get things done. The facilities advisory committee is productive thanks to her."
Stowers, who has helped Waters with the pathway marking system plan, gave him high marks for his map making and technical skills. "He does good work and is easy to work with, " Stowers said.
In November of 1997, Waters, a retired National Geological Survey cartographer, joined the facilities committee, making the commitment a true family project.
Currently, Vincent and Waters are working on the Trail Marking program, the most ambitious of their joint projects, said Brock.
At this time, two trail marking projects have been completed and the committee is currently working on the third, the North Point Parks Loop Trail. Waters' computer graphic handiwork is evident on the trail marking signs.
Vincent, a retired software consultant originally from Rochester, N.Y., moved to Reston in 1983. Waters, an Arlington native, has been a Restonian since 1975.
NOT CONTENT to be bright lights only in the cause of bettering Reston, the couple volunteers in another capacity. As members of the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society, they help the U.S. Coast Guard two days each month in refurbishing old lighthouse lenses for display in museums around the country. "We're currently working on a 'First Order' lens," Vincent said. "It will be 6 feet tall, once we get it in one piece."