Edmonds resident Chris Louie was one of four members of Machinists District Lodge 751 in Seattle who were recently honored by the White House with a gold-level Presidential Service Award for volunteer work sponsored by the District in 2009.

The top award for civic service is given by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation to groups that can certify that its members did more than 1,000 hours of volunteer community service in a year.

The award was primarily the result of work District 751 members did through their Machinists Volunteer Program. In 2009, 464 union members took part in 103 different community service projects, giving a total of 3,721 volunteer hours – surpassing the standard set by the President’s Commission for a gold-level award.

Louie was one of four individual members who were also honored for exceeding more than 100 hours of volunteer work in 2009.

The community service volunteer projects range from food drives and holiday bell ringing for the Salvation Army to building 10 wheelchair ramps for home-bound people around Puget Sound. District 751 volunteers also raised close to a quarter-million dollars for Guide Dogs of America in 2009 with a series of fundraisers, including $12,000 from a recent annual golf outing and $7,000 from the Puppy Put fundraiser.