United Way Community Volunteer Awards Luncheon
Giving others their all

By Jonathan Gramling

By day, Pedro Albiter is a bilingual employment counselor with the Dane County Job Center, helping
people get connected to employment opportunities. At night and on weekends, in addition to being a
loving husband, Albiter is deeply committed volunteer who helps to make the Madison area a better
place to live for Latinos and all residents of the area.
While Albiter has been an active participant in LUChA and LaSup, two Latino service and advocacy
organizations, he is probably best known as the founder of the Comité Festival Mexicano – Wisconsin
(COFEMEX). For the past three years, Albiter has put in hundreds of hours into COFEMEX as it sponsors
the annual Mexican Independence Festivals at Warner Park.
“To tell you the truth, our festival is really the community coming together,” Albiter said at United Way’s
Community Volunteer Awards luncheon held April 23 at the Concourse Hotel. “We are volunteers and
we are not getting paid for what we do. Our festival is for the community and everything we do is from
the bottom of our hearts. We are doing something for the community, so we’re not looking for money.
We’re looking to make a difference in our community.”
Albiter’s passionate volunteerism has not gone unnoticed by others. He was named the 2008 Mike
McKinney Community Volunteer Award recipient. And while Albiter’s record for volunteerism is sterling
— he holds the late Mike McKinney up as a role model — he always talks in terms of community and
the “weism” of volunteering. “We are trying to make the difference, not only with the festival, but also by
doing activities that are going to help our people to get better paying jobs and to be recognized in our
community,” Albiter said. “We have a huge Latino workforce and we need to make sure they are
trained. We’re doing more activities and we need more volunteers to bring training, scholarships and
programs to the community that will benefit young adults and adults as well.” For Albiter, even on the
day that he was being recognized, it was all about others.
Other 2008 Community Volunteer Award Winners were Dave Schwartz who volunteers with Middleton
Outreach Ministry, Travis Michael Graham who works with the Urban League of Greater Madison,
Elizabeth Secrist who puts in time at HospiceCare, Inc. and TDS whose employees support the
Salvation Army of Dane County.
(Top) Community Service Awardees Dave Schwartz (l-
r), employees from TDS and Elizabeth Secrist,
United Way President Leslie Ann Howard (in green),
CUNA Mutual Foundation Executive Director Steve
Goldberg and Katy Sei. Below are Mike McKinney
Community Service Awardee Pedro Albiter (l-r),
McKinney’s mom, Barbara McKinney and Travis
Michael Graham
(Above): Predro Albiter (l) and Barbara McKinney