Former Reserve Deputy Gage Mead, left. congratulates Reserve Commander Tom Crawford on Monday for his Volunteer Manager of the Year award presented to him at the Governor's Points of Light Awards ceremony last week.
Sheriff Ken Furlong announced last week that the Carson City Sheriff’s Office Reserve Commander Tom Crawford was awarded the Governor’s Points of Light Volunteer Manager of the Year award.
Crawford has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 10 years as the Reserve Force Commander. He is in charge of the Reserve Deputies as well as other administrative duties with the Sheriff’s Office. Crawford puts in at least 20 hours a week of unpaid work with the Sheriff’s Office.
“He has been a phenomenal addition to our administration,” Furlong said. “We have tried to offer him compensation for his services many times but he always says no. For a guy who won’t take a dime from us, he’s a poster child for volunteer management of the year. He just does an amazing job. He is truly deserving of this award.”
Crawford is credited with building the Reserve Program up from the beginning. And the results of his program have succeeded in helping free up officers from a variety of functions from patrol to detention to special enforcement. The Reserve Deputies also lead a number of community activities such as the Nevada Day parade, Carson High School games and the carnivals, all of which Crawford supervises. He also is responsible for administrative duties such as attending meetings on policy changes and planning, office logistics and events staffing.
Without Crawford’s supervision with the Reserve program, many community events couldn’t happen because they would be too expensive to staff with full-time deputies.
“This award is a tribute to the Sheriff’s Office and Reserves because we are an organization that believes in volunteers to make the community better,” Crawford said. “The sentiment is incredible. That is was an award presented by the governor and it makes me feel good that the community and state stood by me and nominated me.”
He was nominated for the award by the Sheriff’s Office. Crawford has overseen more than 150 Reserves in his time with the Sheriff’s Office, and has had Reserves go onto be full-time deputies in departments all over Nevada including, Clark, Washoe, Douglas, Lyon and Humboldt counties.
“Here, we celebrate volunteers 100 percent because they do so much that we couldn’t do without their assistance,” Furlong said.
Before starting with the Sheriff’s Office nearly a decade ago, Crawford worked all around, including Alaska and Washington, D.C., and most recently with Nevada Bureau of Land Management with land use planning. He was sworn in as a Reserve in 2003, and began as Commander of the Uniform Reserves in 2005.
Crawford was one of three finalists for the Volunteer Manager of the Year, and he went to Las Vegas last Friday to accept the award at the Governor’s Point of Light banquet, that was held by the Governor’s Commission of Service Nevada Volunteers. There were six award categories, including the Volunteer Manager of the Year. There was a presentation video by Gov. Brian Sandoval, a silent auction and lunch where Crawford was presented his award.
“It was just such a surprise,” Crawford said. “The whole room just filled with immediate and audible applause.”