I Caught You Caring award

It could be as simple as helping out a colleague without even thinking about it. Lending a helping hand may seem so trivial-but it can mean so much.

The little white card with a red heart decal and the simple phrase “I Caught You Caring” could come in the mail or appear on an office desk with little explanation.

“I Caught You Caring” awards are given out sporadically, depending upon how many nominees are received by Human Resources each week.

Jamie McDuffie, senior secretary for Human Resources, fields “I Caught You Caring” e-mails and disperses awards to deserving recipients.

“It’s an award for someone who goes above and beyond their call of duty,” McDuffie said. “It’s good to know there’s a lot of faculty members who are appreciated like that.”

While all recipients receive a card, first time recipients also receive a gold “I Caught You Caring” pin in constant reminder of their services.

Faculty, staff, students and administrators can nominate deserving peers or superiors for the award whenever their life is affected by genuine good will. Awards can be given for an ongoing behavior rather than a specific incident. Anyone who witnesses a kind act, not just those who are directly affected, can nominate someone.

McDuffie said many award recipients are tutors, teachers who spend extra time with their students, and faculty and staff members who assist freshmen with moving into the residence halls.

McDuffie keeps a list of all recipients for one year, with the slate cleaning each July. Masterlists of recipients are displayed all over campus, including just outside McDuffie’s office in the Hall House, for everyone to see.

There is no limitation on how many times a caring individual may receive the award. Awards are frequently given to repeated recipients. In fact, the motto for the “Caught in the Act” program is “what gets rewarded, gets repeated.”

Cindy Potts, Public Safety administrative assistant, has won approximately four or five of these awards in her nine years at GC&SU, and said it is meaningful to her each time.

“It makes you feel good, but when I’m doing my job I don’t expect to get an ‘I Caught You Caring’ card,” Potts said. “I’m usually surprised when I get one because I’m just doing my job. You just do what you’re supposed to.”

Potts has also nominated others for the award as well. She said it seems like such a small thing to do to repay someone, however it always makes her smile when someone does it for her.

“Sometimes it doesn’t seem like enough (to nominate someone),” Potts said. “For me- it just makes you feel good and puts a smile on your face. I think that it would encourage people to do a little bit better just by being recognized for someone going out of their way to say thank you for what they did.”

“I Caught You Caring” award dispertion has changed hands many times in recent years, and there is little information remaining to explain the true motivations behind the program.

Carol Ward, Human Resources benefit manager, said the program has been around for approximately seven years.

“It started seven or eight years ago and it was instituted by one of our former directors, Bonnie Sims,” Ward said. “It was based on a program from another university.”

According to the “I Caught You Caring” InfoPage information link, the Quality Service Action Team of the Business & Finance Division implemented the program in September of 1997. At the time of the InfoPage’s last update, more than 968 cards had been processed.

The award was generated to encourage exceptional service throughout the university. Students may also receive an award, but McDuffie said awards received by students are usually received by student workers.

Nominations for an “I Caught You Caring” award can be e-mailed to McDuffie at jamie.mcduffie@gcsu.edu.

In addition to receiving an award, some recipients are pictured on the InfoPage with a brief description of who they are and why they were nominated for the award.

Those who receive an “I Caught You Caring” award just seem to make a difference, McDuffie said.

“Sometimes it’s the little things that matter the most.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 10 2006. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry