Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990                   TAG: 9003222328
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GEORGE POLLASH

But some awards are of broader interest and greater meaning than most. One such award is Roanoke Citizen of the Year, selected by City Council from nominations that have been reviewed by a screening committee.

True, it's not the Nobel Peace Prize. The recipient gets a plaque and a framed key to the city, and his or her photograph hung for a year in the lobby of the Municipal Building. But the award is an opportunity to take note of outstanding service to the community, and to call attention to contributions that deserve recognition but often go unheralded.

Roanoke's 1990 Citizen of the Year, announced last week, is an especially appropriate selection. George Pollash, director for the past 15 years of the Presbyterian Community Center in Southeast Roanoke, has been a bright star among the 1,000 points of community-service lights since long before a speechwriter put the phrase in George Bush's mouth.

Without a penny of government support, Pollash and the center deliver direct basic help to needy Roanokers. Quietly and unobtrusively, Pollash and the center have assisted the poor in a number of ways: seeing to it that hungry families get food; ill-clad families, clothing; poor children, school supplies.

After a decade when every deal had to have an angle, when success was equated with the amassing of material wealth, when the bottom line was all, it's good to see Roanoke still recognizing other, more durable values - and still finding Roanokers who are worthy of the recognition.