Mark Stapleton, general maintenance Technician/ Facilities worker, was recognized recently for going above and beyond this past quarter for helping a family during function at the Passan School of Nursing and was recognized with the Quarterly Colonel Award.

Stapleton is the seventh winner of the campus-wide recognized award.

Stapleton has worked at Wilkes University for almost 11 years, his anniversary coming this March. Stapleton started off working the custodial overnight shift until being switched to day shifts where he now sets up for the various functions on the Wilkes University campus.

The Quarterly Colonel Awards is a year-old program intended to recognize staff members across the Wilkes University Campus for going above and beyond what is expected in their diverse job fields. The program allows members of the Wilkes University community to nominate fellow workers and those they witness significantly impacting the campus.

The committee, headed by Mildred Urban, focuses on innovation, customer service, productivity, and more impacts faculty make take on along with their usual workload when deciding the winner. The winner of the award gets a day off, a plaque, a sweatshirt and campus-wide recognition.

The award program started in April 2016 and has since awarded seven employees ranging from Maintenance to Information Technology.

“It’s always really, really special to hear about what our employees are doing,” said Jacki Lukas ’11 alumni communications and events manager about what makes the award special.

“There are just so many fantastic things happening on this campus to just make it a better place overall,” added Lukas, “People are just really going above and beyond to make this a better place for our students, a better place to work, and a better place to be in general.

“Seeing the recipient’s face, seeing how surprised they are, and then impressed that someone else recognized their hard work,” Lukas continued. “It’s really nice to keep that moral up.”

Stapleton was “caught being colonel” by Anthony Naro at a nursing function in the Ballroom of the Student Union Building.

“Mark went out of his way to help a family that was on campus,” stated Kenneth Hanadel, supervisor of Grounds & Utility Laborers.

“Mark is just really friendly,” added Lukas, “He’s just a great personality here on campus and a great edition to our staff.”

“I noticed the directions weren’t quite meshing together,” said Stapleton, so he decided to step into action after he set up for the function.

“I told her I drove the big Wilkes box truck and I found out exactly where she was,” recalled Stapleton, “and I made her follow me to the Wilkes SUB lot.”

“I went and parked her truck and then led her into the sub and made sure she could meet up with her daughter,.”

But Stapleton’s kind services for the family didn’t stop there.

“He even walked the person in to make sure they settled and comfortable,” Lukas said.

“I am happy to be able to represent Wilkes facilities.” Stapleton said. “I work with a bunch of phenomenal, phenomenal ladies and gentleman.”