After years of engraving plaques for various clubs, teams and
community activists, Karen Riso is now concentrating on designing
one for Gilroy’s Volunteer of the Year
– herself.
After years of engraving plaques for various clubs, teams and community activists, Karen Riso is now concentrating on designing one for Gilroy’s Volunteer of the Year – herself.
This year, the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce will honor Riso, 59, for her years of service to the community she has made her own by naming her the Firman B. Voorhies Volunteer of the Year – an award given in memory of the first chairman of the Chamber’s board.
“It is a fitting name for this award and to our recipients because without our most precious resource – volunteers such as Karen Riso – this organization would never have achieved its accomplishments,” said Susan Valenta, president and chief executive officer of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
As owner of The Engraving Company, Riso is the go-to woman for anyone in town who needs a trophy, plaque or award designed. Not only does she volunteer her creative services to benefit the community, from fashioning decorations for Chamber events to designing the Good Egg award that graces the walls of businesses and organizations throughout Gilroy, she’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves and dig into the dirty work. This year’s co-chairperson of the Gilroy Garlic Festival’s chicken stir-fry can often be found wearing her signature chicken hat while directing the controlled chaos in sweltering Gourmet Alley.
“It’s amazing how well it works,” she said of the Festival’s volunteer effort. “They’ve got it down to a science.”
Riso’s spirit of volunteerism developed naturally during her childhood growing up in Fort Bragg, a tiny town of less than 7,000 on the Mendocino coast with no stoplights and only one theater.
“When you go to such a small school – there were only 135 students in my graduating class – you volunteer because it’s something to do,” Riso said.
From a town where everyone knew her name, Riso bounced around from Japan to Texas and back to California.
“It’s a little intimidating when you’re coming to a town where you don’t know anyone,” she said.
Throwing herself into Chamber of Commerce activities, opening her own business and volunteering through her three daughters’ schools soon filled her calendar with round-the-clock engagements. Organizing grad nights, collecting teddy bears with her Bunco group to distribute to local hospitals and nursing homes, and donating her time toward other causes that need an extra helping hand keep her booked.
“I am continually amazed by her creative ideas and the many groups and organizations she has helped,” Valenta said. “Karen Riso is one of those individuals who continually contributes with her time, energy, and talent to the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.”
Surrounded by the trappings of her flourishing career – stacks of plaques waiting to be shipped out, an ancient looking beast of an engraving machine and boxes upon boxes of trophies to be engraved covering almost every free surface – Riso’s offbeat personality blends seamlessly with her colorful studio. The magenta streak running through her dark hair changes depending on her mood or the season, she said. It was hot pink just before Thanksgiving.
“At almost 60, I should be able to do what I want with my hair,” she said, laughing.
Some of her more memorable clients include Jackie Gleason, who wanted “The Great One” engraved on his golf clubs, and a pair of newlyweds whose request to have their plastic wedding champagne flutes engraved cost more than the glasses themselves. But creating her own award as Volunteer of the Year is a true honor, she said.
“It makes me feel good that they recognize me,” she said. “It’s nice to know I’m appreciated.”
