During Rotary eClub One’s Annual Dinner, held in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, the club honored Rotarian Matt Pieper, Executive Director of Open Hand Atlanta, as this year’s recipient of the club’s Professional Excellence Award.  

Open Hand Atlanta

Through the Open Hand Atlanta program, thousands of meals are prepared and distributed each week to seniors and others with chronic health conditions.  With its proactive and prevention-focused program, Open Hand Atlanta strives to improve the health of all its clients.  Meals are designed to follow nutritional guidelines set forth by the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Dietetic Association.  

Combined with the home-delivered meals is a nutrition education component which helps clients set and achieve health and wellness goals.  Upon enrollment, Open Hand clients are screened to determine if a home visit by an Open Hand Atlanta dietitian would be beneficial.  At least twice yearly clients are surveyed, and each meal includes facts about the nutritional value of their meals, thus increasing client awareness.

Good Measure Meals^TM, a social entrepreneurship meal program, provides calorie- and portion-controlled meals.  This business has over 60 pick-up locations in Atlanta, Athens, and Savannah.  100% of net proceeds from Good Measure Meals^TM goes directly to Open Hand Atlanta to help increase its impact on health in the community.

Rotary eClub One President Dr. ‘Buchi Akpeh presents award to Matt Pieper. Looking on are Abbas Rajabi, 2017-2018 District Governor of District 5450, and PDG Charles Tegarden, Rotary eClub One Trainer.

History of Rotary eClub One’s Professional Excellence Award

By Chris Joscelyne, Past President of Rotary eClub One

Our Rotary eClub One Professional Excellence Award is given to a Founder, CEO or senior executive of a not-for-profit enterprise who is making a significant and effective contribution to the well-being of those served by the enterprise. The award can be given to any outstanding person who is not a member of Rotary eClub One, so Rotarians of other Rotary clubs may be considered for the award.

The Professional Excellence Award has been a traditional highlight of our Annual Dinner every year since we initiated it to mark the Centenary Year of Rotary. The initial presentation was at our Annual Dinner at the University Club of Chicago in 2005, so our 2017 Professional Excellence Award will be the 13th we have given.

The awardee is decided by a committee. Although it is not a mandatory requirement, there has been a trend towards identifying candidates from the city or country in which our Annual Dinner is to be held. All but one recipient have been present to receive their award. At our Annual Dinner in Lisbon, Portugal, the recipient could not attend, due to travel distance from Spain. Naturally, this was disappointing.