Local resident given volunteer award

Local resident Mark Petzholdt was recently named a 2014 3M Volunteer Awardee at a recent award ceremony for his volunteer work to improve the lives of Bolivians. Petzholdt is a 3M HVAC mechanic who has also been a key volunteer in Mano a Mano, a St. Paul/Cochabamba, Bolivia organization that builds schools and clinics, roads and reservoirs throughout Bolivia.

Petzoldt is a 64-year old Vietnam vet who has put in 25 years whose unlikely passion is development work in Bolivia. He puts in hundreds of hours a year volunteering for Mano a Mano.

Petzoldt began working for Mano a Mano about 20 years ago, when one of the organization’s founders, Segundo Valasquez, asked him if he would help prepare medical supplies for shipment to Bolivia. Segundo was married to Petzoldt's former in-law, Joan Velasquez. “I couldn’t say no to them,” Petzoldt says now. That’s how he got started on a path that has led to thousands of volunteer hours in the group’s

St. Paul facility, plus seven trips to Bolivia, where he is now regarded as an old friend by the local staff.