Right now, for example, it might seem like a lot of things aren’t working very well in our government.  But this week I had the delight of seeing the other side of the federal government at work when I attended the Sammy Awards in Washington, DC.

I thought this trip would be all about celebrating my sister’s nomination for her work with mosses and in uncovering hot spots of pollution in cities.  And to be sure, we spent a LOT of time celebrating (including a clandestine acquisition of a souvenir cutlery set for someone special).  What I didn’t expect was to find myself feeling excited and proud of what goes on behind the scenes in government.

Here are some of the other every day heroes who were recognized at this event:

• A team of people at the DPA and DOJ who worked together to halt a scheme by Volkswagen to evade emissions standards
• A man at the CDC who was the key player behind a program to scale up a system to deliver medicine to those suffering from HIV in developing nations
• The treasury inspector general, whose team led a multi-agency investigation and public awareness campaign to halt the scamming of senior citizens by those pretending to be from the IRS
• A team within the FDA who accelerated the approval process for an artificial pancreas for those with diabetes, reducing the approval time by three whole years (how many lives they must have saved!)
• A woman in the marine corps systems command who developed body armor 45% lighter and more flexible for female soldiers
• A disabled veteran working in the Department of Veterans Affairs  who designed special equipment and innovative wheelchairs to improve the lives of combat veterans
• A man in the U.S. Agency for International Development who led the effort to organize relief for those in Syria, even coordinating with neighboring countries to bring aid into Syria on donkeys (we all know I have a sweet spot for donkeys).

So perhaps every fluffy bunny isn’t as sweet as it looks, but on the flip side, every ferocious rabbit isn’t as awful as we are led to believe, either. We might have raised a few too many glasses to toast the award winners and nominees at this fancy gala, but after the hangover subsides I know there will be the soft glow of pride in knowing some things in the government are working really, really well.

I’ll leave you with this thought, direct from the lovely gala program:

We get in the habit of speaking of the government as if it were something apart from us.  The government is us—we are the government, you and I.
            President Theodore Roosevelt.

Learn more about the Partnership for Public Service and the Sammy Awards at ourpublicservice.org.