Dr. Dina Vendetti came to Dover in 2000 from York, Pa. to answer St. John’s Lutheran Church’s call for a principal to lead a kindergarten through eighth-grade facility to add to its existing preschool. Seventeen years later, she’s built a program that serves 55 students and has become a celebrated figure in central Delaware’s business leader atmosphere.

In late April, she was named this year’s Central Delaware Honorary Mayor — through the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce (CDCC). On Thursday night, at the chamber’s annual Awards for Excellence Dinner she won the Volunteer of the Year award and her Leadership Central Delaware program alumni class of 2004 won the Best in Class award.