[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 17, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E553-E554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MADGELEAN BUSH

                                 ______


                            HON. KEN BENTSEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 17, 1996

  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a very 
special friend and community leader from Houston. Ms. Madgelean Bush 
will be honored this Friday as the 1996 recipient of the Joint Action 
in Community Service, Inc.'s [JACS] National Volunteer of the Year 
Award.
  Ms. Bush has been a JACS volunteer coordinator for 10 years and 
serves as the executive director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., 
Community Center's halfway house in Houston. A natural leader and 
administrator, she supervises a staff of 45 and manages two and a half 
million dollars in city, county, State, and Federal funds. Among other 
services, she and her staff and volunteers have assisted more than 
2,400 Job Corps students in their transition from Job Corps training to 
community readjustment and the world of work.
  Ms. Bush was selected for this year's honor from a group of 10 
individuals nominated as outstanding regional volunteers.
  JACS Southwest Regional Director Deloris Kenerson, who nominated Ms. 
Bush, described her as ``a dedicated, humble, yet dynamic advocate for 
the Job Corps program.'' Ms. Kenerson added, ``Harris County has more 
students returning home from Job Corps than any other county in the 
Southwest region. The assistance Ms. Bush provides helps promote self-
sufficiency and self-worth among the young people returning to the 
Houston area from Job Corps training.''
  Ms. Kenerson attributes much of Ms. Bush's success to the fact that 
she refuses to accept that what is right is not always possible. If

[[Page E554]]

each person does his/her small part, then what is right can be 
accomplished. Ms. Bush has never given any of her staff the luxury of 
saying, It can't be done.
  When not helping Job Corps youth, Ms. Bush volunteers for a host of 
other worthy causes. Over two decades of service, she has contributed 
to the Houston Inter Faith Hunger Coalition, the Riverside Health 
Clinic Advisory Board, Twilight Chapter No. 393 Order of the Eastern 
Star Prince Hall Masons, the Dodson Elementary Advisory Group, the 
United Methodist Church Conference of Church and Society, and the Texas 
Conference of Churches. She serves as a precinct judge and a member of 
the Texas Democratic Executive Committee from Precinct No. 247.
  The mother of a grown son and daughter, Ms. Bush enjoys her 
grandchildren and 150 foster children.
  I am proud to call Madgelean Bush my friend and congratulate her on 
becoming JACS National Volunteer of the Year.

                          ____________________