For the second year, the Bartels family has returned to campus to recognize outstanding custodial service.

Last February, Phil Bartels '71, wife Susan, daughter Katie '06 and son Christopher '09 inaugurated the Bartels Award for Custodial Service Excellence. They created the award as the result of the kindness Duffield Hall custodian Craig Beaver had shown to Katie. Beaver, noticing how focused Katie and her friends were when they studied for their final exams, brought them brownies and cookies and offered the students encouraging words.

Beaver did not know that Katie was the daughter of a prominent Cornell alumnus or that she would tell her parents how thoughtful Cornell's custodial staff members were to her. Yet she did, and soon afterward Phil Bartels contacted Rob Osborn, director of the Department of Building Care, to express his gratitude for the caring and compassion that the custodial staff had demonstrated.

Bartels proposed a recognition program for Building Care custodial staff. The award is to be given annually to five custodians who have at least five years of service and were nominated by their supervisors for their strong customer service orientation, reliability, team-building skills, communication and positive attitude.

"Selecting this year's winners was especially difficult," Osborn said to approximately 300 custodial staff and guests at the Nov. 7 ceremony in the Statler Ballroom. "We had so many excellent nominees." For the 2008-09 year, four custodians and one head custodian were chosen:

"For 41 years I have been a very satisfied customer of the Department of Building Care," said Bartels, noting that the appearance of the buildings and the friendly atmosphere created by Cornell's custodial staff make a positive, lasting impression.