Minnesota AFSCME Member, Daughter Win Hearts and Award

October 10, 2006

October 10, 2006

Minnesota AFSCME member 
Dianne Mitzuk and her daughter 
Becky won this year’s
Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Terrel
Merriman Community Services 
Award for their winter clothing 
drive for disadvantaged
school children.
Photo Credit: Don Dinndorf

In a state known for its brutal winters, some Minnesota children have benefited from the hard work of two warm-hearted women – Dianne Mitzuk, a file manager for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and member of Local 2829 (Council 5), and her daughter Becky, a teacher of special needs preschoolers in St. Paul. 

For their efforts to collect donated winter clothing for needy children, the two have been selected as joint winners of this year’s Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Terrel Merriman Community Services Award, named after a Salvation Army volunteer. Council 5’s nominating letter described how the Mitzuk’s personal desire to help those with limited resources grew so popular that “AFSCME members throughout the state were cleaning out their closets and donating to Dianne’s ‘little ones.’”

Hundreds of St. Paul children – many from countries scattered across the globe –have benefited from the clothing drive in the two years since the campaign’s inception. Since many of their parents do not qualify for public assistance, resources can be difficult to find. Becky, who teaches at Jackson Elementary School in St. Paul, got the idea for a used winter clothing bank after watching in dismay as the youngsters came to school without jackets, sweaters or even mittens – even as temperatures plummeted below freezing. “She called me up and said, ‘Mom, I need your help,’” Dianne recalls.

Dianne posted a sign in her workplace requesting donations. “That’s all it took,” she said. Bags of items soon began piling up in her home. “I had a bedroom filled, and a laundry room,” she said.

By the second year of their effort, students at seven schools had winter clothes.

“We’re not doing this for an award,” adds Dianne. “We’re doing this because these kids need to be warm. It’s very hard to accept something like that [the award] when you’re just doing something anyone would do. But it was a huge honor – very humbling. It is the kindness of many people that make this possible. We are just the ‘middle