[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 61 (Thursday, April 26, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H2142-H2143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DEE COOK--CHILD ADVOCATES OF FORT BEND COUNTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Olson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dee Cook, a 
distinguished leader in my home community of Fort Bend County, Texas. 
For over 40 years, Dee has given her time and her energy to help with 
the children of Fort Bend County, in part through her commitment and 
support of Child Advocates of Fort Bend County, which fights on behalf 
of abused and neglected children.
  Dee has served as the grant officer of the George Foundation since 
1988. The George Foundation contributes to many worthy causes 
throughout Fort Bend County, and Dee has played a pivotal role in 
making sure the generosity of the foundation is directed to causes that 
help our communities the most. However, it is her generous 
contributions through the George Foundation to Child Advocates of Fort 
Bend County that bring me to the floor today.
  By contributing her time, energy and resources, Dee has enabled Child 
Advocates to serve over 8,000 children throughout Fort Bend County. 
Under her leadership, Dee Cook has helped teach the staff and 
volunteers to be better leaders, more effective program managers, and 
to achieve the dream of helping the most vulnerable children in our 
communities in ways we never thought possible 20 years ago. Her 
contributions are helping children and, in turn, are strengthening our 
communities and neighborhoods. On their behalf, she has given a voice 
to those who desperately need one.
  Dee's efforts to build philanthropic leaders do not stop with Child 
Advocates. She has also started an annual 8-month Leadership for 
Nonprofit Excellence course to teach the rising stars of Fort Bend 
County the skills they need to harness and grow Fort Bend's strong 
nonprofit community. Most importantly, she has led a cooperative effort 
between the George Foundation and the Sugar Land Chamber of Commerce to 
create Youth in Philanthropy, the YIP Team. The YIP Team is 100 Fort 
Bend County high school juniors and seniors who spend a school year 
seeing how volunteerism and philanthropy coexist to serve our Fort Bend 
community. At the end of the school year, the YIP Team will put their 
knowledge to the test by awarding monetary grants to nonprofits--life 
changing, indeed.
  I commend Dee Cook for a lifetime of service to Fort Bend County. I 
simply want to say to Dee, on behalf of the people of Fort Bend County, 
thank you. Fort Bend County would not be the county that we all know 
and love without Dee Cook.
  In closing, Dee's love for Fort Bend County will be on display 
tonight at Constellation Field as Fort Bend's new pro-baseball team, 
the Sugar Land Skeeters, has its first home game. I join Dee and the 
people of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County in saying, Go Skeeters.

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