THEY ARE ALWAYS PEOPLE IN NEED,. IF YOU HAVE THE TIME AND ABILITY TO HELP SOMEONE REGARDLESS OF WHAT IT IS, I WOULD DO IT. I WOULD DO SOMETHING FOR OTHER PEOPLE AND NOT EXPECT SOMETHING IN RETURN.” “Since being an Eagle Scout and all the way through college, I have done community service,” Pruski says. “In college, I spent a lot of time doing bingos at senior living facilities. We also did a lot of work in low-income communities.”
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Pruski, a two-term Anne Arundel County Council Member, got even more involved with community service after college. He has helped veterans, students, and women in need of housing and financial assistance. He has also organized neighborhood cleanups.
TOWNE SALUTE
Andrew Pruski
Community Volunteer & County Council Member
O 38
By Tom Worgo
nce an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout. During a seven-year stint in the Boy Scouts, which ended at age 19, Andrew Pruski discovered the gratification that comes with helping people. His motivation to serve was strengthened when he attended New York’s Niagara University. The school’s motto is still to serve.
What’s Up? Annapolis | December 2021 | whatsupmag.com
On top of that, the 44-yearold Pruski assisted first responders—fire fighters and policemen—and personnel in the ICU units at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center and the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He cites the tough times they faced during the pandemic. “They are always people in need,” says Pruski, who may run for the House of Delegates in 2022. “If you have the time and ability to help someone regardless of what it is, I would do it. I would do something for other people and not expect something in return.” Pruski, a Gambrills resident, somehow manages to balance all his community service with a full-time job and busy family life. He’s married with three kids, and works as a supervisor of internal as-
sessment for Prince George’s County Public Schools. That’s not to mention his duties as a councilman that he considers another full-time job. “I go from nine a.m. to nine p.m. every day,” Pruski says. If all that is not enough, Pruski coaches basketball, soccer, baseball, and flag football in the Gambrills Odenton Recreation Council (GORC). GORC President Mike Pozdol admires Pruski for his incredible drive to support his community. “I am impressed by him every day,” Pozdol says. “He volunteers at everything. I ask him if he has time to sleep or breathe with all he does. He amazes me at how he does all this. I feel like I do a good amount of volunteering. But next to him, I feel like a slacker.” The volunteerism that meant as much as any to Pruski involved helping first responders and hospital staff last year. He used money out of his own pocket in addition to partnering with local restaurants to buy lunches for three different groups: firefighters, police, and hospital staff working in ICU units taking care of Covid patients. He believes his effort had a lot to do with him receiving the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce’s 2021 Government Advocate of the Year award.
