While volunteers have the freedom to come and go as they please, Nancy Coss-Fitzwater asks West Valley Community Services for a vacation--as if she's an  employee--because she recognizes she's become indispensable to the nonprofit.

"Nancy is a tremendous asset to our agency," said Jacqueline de Guzman, director of community resources at West Valley Community Services (WVCS,) who nominated Coss-Fitzwater for the 2011 CREST (Cuerptino Recognizes Extra Steps Taken) Award.

The CREST Awards will be presented tonight at 7 p.m. at Cupertino Community Hall.

De Guzman said Coss-Fitzwater keeps track of donors, writes appreciation letters and coordinates fundraising events for WVCS. She also serves as a teaching assistant in cooking classes for low-income families, and designs recipes of healthful meals for the Dinner on a Dime program.

"Nancy excels in everything she does for us with minimal supervision," added de Guzman.

Before retiring in 2009 Coss-Fitzwater was a manager of policy and administration with Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority—a perfect match for her educational background---a Bachelor's degree in urban geography and economics from the University of California- Irvine.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Coss-Fitzwater grew up in Monterey County since age 2.

After graduating from UC Irvine, she worked in Orange County, where she also married and had children. The family moved to Silicon Valley in 1993, and settled in Cupertino in 1995.

Now Coss-Fitzwater's two children are grown and in college. Now empty-nested and retired, Coss-Fitzwater says she has a lot of free time, which she loves to spend on meaningful community service.

Coss-Fitzwater said she began looking for volunteering opportunities in 2010, and WVCS came to mind because her family had twice helped the nonprofit serve Thanksgiving dinner to low-income families.

Her husband, Tom Fitzwater, still works—to pay for the son’s college, Coss-Fitzwater says—thought he has been found volunteering at WVCS events such as when he was an adult chaperone for the Back-to-School Shopping Spree last fall.

Volunteering is rewarding on its own, but Coss-Fitzwater's eyes sparkled when she described the Shopping Spree.

"It was fun to watch those kids get what they needed and wanted, to see how excited they were," she said.

Editor's note: Cupertino Patch is profiling all 2011 CREST Award winners of which there were nine individuals and one organization.