CSSAC, APSAC present 2015 Community Spirit Award

October 22, 2015  


Dan Carpenter and Carol Weaver

The Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee and the Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee presented the 2015 Community Spirit Award to Dan Carpenter, director of Student Success at Purdue. Carol Weaver, alumni relations and communications coordinator for the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, received an honorable mention. (Purdue University photo/Charles Jischke)
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Dan Carpenter, director of Student Success at Purdue, received the 2015 Community Spirit Award on Oct. 13 during the annual joint meeting of APSAC and CSSAC.

Carpenter received the award for his volunteer work with The Arc of Tippecanoe County, Special Olympics, the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Tippy Stars, members of the committees said. A joint creation of the Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee and the Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee (CSSAC), the award is given to those who set a high standard for service, who encourage a sustained commitment to civic participation and who inspire others to make service a central part of their lives. It was established in 2011.

Carpenter serves on the board of directors and the education committee of The Arc of Tippecanoe County. The Arc works with individuals with developmental disabilities to help them learn, live, work and play in the community. Carpenter and his wife, Cari, help host and plan social events for The Arc's Superstar Social Club, including hosting an annual Halloween party and haunted woods at their home.

He also has served as advisor for the student organization Special Olympics at Purdue.

The Carpenters have fostered multiple children, many of whom had special needs, have adopted two children and are in the process of adopting another. Dan Carpenter has also mentored others who are interested in fostering or adopting.

He also serves as a board member for the Central Indiana division of NOFAS, the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a group that works to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Finally, he also supports Tippy Stars, through his children's participation and occasionally helping coaches, a baseball organization that his wife founded. It is for children of all abilities and gives those with disabilities the opportunity to play sports.

"What I do is inspired by the two most important women in my life, my mom and my wife, Cari," Carpenter says. "My mom, who has passed, inspired me not so much by what she said but what she did. And my wife inspires me by what she does and says."

This year, Carol Weaver, one of the award's nominees, received an honorable mention for her work for several local service organizations, the committees said. Weaver is alumni relations and communications coordinator for the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. She has given approximately 28 gallons of blood to the Indiana Blood Center and also coordinates several blood drives on campus, making arrangements, recruiting donors, setting up tables and chairs before the drive and returning them to their original locations after, and addressing other issues that arise.

She also worked with Professor Chad Jafvert of Purdue's Global Engineering Program and coordinated a volunteer group that traveled to India, implementing Jafvert's two-bucket water filtration system. She spent thousands of dollars of her money in the effort, which successfully brought the clean-water systems to 30 villages.

Writer: Greg McClure, 765-496-9711, gmcclure@purdue.edu

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