Community leadership award presented to Keesler Sailor Published Oct. 17, 2007 81st Training Wing Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- A Keesler Sailor, Petty Officer 1st Class Ava Venishel, won the Thomas V. Fredian Community Leadership Award at the Salute to the Military Tuesday. The award, sponsored by the Mississippi Coast Chamber of Commerce, honors Tom Fredian, former Navy member and public affairs officer at Stennis Space Center, who died in 1999. Petty Officer Venishel is an instructor in the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit. An aerographer's mate student at Keesler from 1997-98, she returned to CNATTU in January 2003 for advanced aerographer's mate training and forecaster certification. After a tour in Yokosaka, Japan, she returned to Keesler as an instructor in her career field. As unit volunteer service coordinator, Petty Officer Venishel secured Navy and Marine Corps staff and students for a wide range of community service projects, including 12 Baskets Food Bank Drive, Children's Toy Drive, Ronald McDonald House, Urban Life Industries, American Heart Association, Special Olympics and the annual American Red Cross blood drive. Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter, the featured speaker, complimented South Mississippi on its support of the military during the annual event at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. Also in attendance were Mississippi Congressman Gene Taylor and Gov. Haley Barbour. Senior Airman Carlos Rodriguez, Keesler Public Affairs; Perry Jenifer, Keesler News editor, and Susan Griggs, Keesler News staff, contributed to this report.