The Washington State PTA recently presented the 2013 Outstanding Service Award to Ray Kusumi of Renton.

The Outstanding Service Award is the highest volunteer service award presented by the Washington State PTA. It is only presented to one recipient each year.

Kusumi has been involved in PTA for 19 years. At the local unit level, he served at Kennydale PTA in leadership roles on various committees including newsletters, after-school programs, scholarship committee, Watch DOGS, art docent, Reflections, teacher appreciation, carnival and auction.

At McKnight Middle School PTSA, Kusumi served as newsletter editor, president, legislative chair, scholarship committee chair, parenting seminars chair and also served on the school improvement team and helped to review the school’s anti-bullying curriculum.

At Hazen High School PTSA, he currently serves as the PTSA president, and has also served this PTA as newsletter editor, and in various other leadership roles including senior graduation events, teacher appreciation and the booster club.

At Renton PTSA Council, Kusumi served as newsletter editor, vice president, and president. At the State PTA level, he served as the newsletter editor for region 9, the bylaws committee, technology committee, the elections oversight committee, and as outreach chairperson for region 9.

In addition to his involvement in PTA, Kusumi also served on the board for Concordia Lutheran Conference, and served as a volunteer leader in many other roles at St Luke’s Lutheran Church, Renton Emergency Communication Service and volunteers to other organizations such as the American Red Cross, Northwest Kidney Foundation, and the Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS).

He also is employed as a forensic scientist for the Washington State Patrol in their crime lab and enjoys photography and Taekwon Do in his free time.