Butte College's largest fundraising event, the Spring Gala, honored outstanding alumni of the year at the event held on Saturday, March 5, 2022 at the Lakeside Pavillion, 2565 California Park Drive in Chico. This year’s theme was “Changing Lives, Changing Futures” and honored outstanding alumni: Dale Ott, and husband and wife honorees Joel Belben and Dr. Laurel Hammang.
Dale Ott is the president and owner of Vitil Solutions Inc., a firm providing ITIL compliant desktop services for government and education clients. He attended Butte College in 1977 while working graveyard shifts to pay for his education. Exhibiting determination and drive, he earned his associate degree in electronics in 1979. After graduating, Dale received an offer to work for IBM. He credits much of his early success to his Butte College instructors and mentors, Ray Carozza and Ed Struther.
Dr. Laurel Hammang and Joel Belben are being honored together, which is fitting since they met while attending Butte College where they were both members of Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society. Both completed their studies at Butte in 2008 and continued their education by transferring to 4-year universities. Joel completed his bachelor’s and master’s in aerospace engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He is a senior manager at Ernst & Young working in environment, health, safety, and sustainability consulting, in addition to digital enablement. After completing her associate degree in biology, Dr. Hammang went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from CSU, Chico, and MBA from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In 2016 she graduated from Illinois College of Optometry with her Doctorate of Optometry and she completed her residency at UC Berkeley. She is now an optometrist and business owner in Chico.
This special event was hosted by the Butte College Foundation and benefits scholarships, athletics, and Foundation endeavors that benefit Butte College and its students. The evening included dinner, a silent auction, dessert auction, and live auction.
Tickets for the event were sold out and the event's title sponsors are Tri Counties Bank and North State Planning and Development Collective.
###
Butte College
3536 Butte Campus Drive
Oroville, CA 95965
Content editor:
Christian Gutierrez
530-895-2959
