|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Three people with long records of giving back to the Pleasanton community are set to be recognized next week during a reception outside of the Museum on Main.
Pam Yeaw and Anne and Brock Roby have been selected as the 2026 Ed Kinney Community Patriots, an annual award program named for late former mayor and councilmember that honors local residents “who exemplify through their actions love, pride, faith, belief and devotion to our community”, like Kinney did.
“I never would have believed that I’d be honored for doing something I enjoy so much!” Yeaw, a dedicated Pleasanton Police Department volunteer, said in the press release announcing the award winners. “I enjoy meeting people, and I enjoy helping the officers out.”
Yeaw gives some 130 hours per month to PPD, a familiar sight in uniform at many special events or assisting around the office or supporting police personnel in the field when crowd control is needed.
Her journey with the department started 21 years ago when she was one of the inaugural four volunteers in a new program launched by then-police chief Tim Neal.
Yeaw has been called on late at night, including one time leaving a volunteer appreciation dinner to support police investigating a fatal crash on Foothill Road from 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.. But these days she often checks in early in the morning, beginning with an exercise shift at the workout space inside the department at 3:30 a.m. “That’s when I have time to myself,” she said.
She was also a board member and ambassador for the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce and supporter of Pleasanton North Rotary Club activities. She and husband Wayne have owned and operated Alpha Omega Printing in town for 40 years. They have three adult sons, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
A recognizable couple around Pleasanton, Anne and Brock Roby are being honored for their dedication to charity and ministry in their community.
“‘It is more blessed to give than to receive,'” Brock said in the press release. “Maybe I’m getting more out of all this than I give.”
“We like to work with people,” Anne added.
They met at Princeton University studying civil engineering, and after graduation, they followed a calling for a ministry that took them to Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Honolulu over 19 years.
The Robys moved to Pleasanton in 2001, finding the public school system ideal for supporting their first-born son Barrett, who has Down syndrome, as well as his younger brother Nick.
They soon helped create an E-Soccer program in Pleasanton, to bring together kids of all abilities on the field.
“It was a win-win,” Brock said. “The players loved the younger buddy-coaches, and the coaches liked being a help to the players.” Anne later chronicled those experiences and more in an original blog, “The Exceptional Journey”, sharing resources and ideas with other parents.
The Robys previously served on the boards of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce and Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley Charitable Foundation. Brock sat on the city’s Human Services Commission and was on the implementation committee for the city’s Youth Master Plan. Anne participated in Sunflower Hill, YMCA Tri-Valley and Assistance League of Amador Valley.
They are both now involved in San Francisco Bay Fellowship, establishing so-called “home churches” and mentoring church leaders in Korea and western Europe in-person and online. He also worked as a civil engineer and she as a liaison between prep tutors and clients.
“As Margaret Meade famously said, ‘Never doubt that a small group of citizens can change the world … it’s the only thing that ever has.’ And this year’s recipients have worked to make our part of the world a better place,” said W. Ron Sutton, founder of the award and president of the Make A Difference, Today & Always nonprofit that sponsors the annual program.
The Community Patriots reception is set for next Monday evening (April 27) outside the museum in downtown Pleasanton.
The Museum on Main will also soon be home to a permanent plaque honoring all Ed Kinney Community Patriots since the first award in 2005, with the unveiling set to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
