Mission 500 honors Monitronics volunteer with humanitarian award

DALLAS, Texas—Mary Jensby, central station and data entry director for Monitronics, is well known in the industry for her work with the CSAA and ESA. Now she's been recognized for service outside of security that she calls “near and dear” to her: helping the less fortunate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Jensby has been named the recipient of the 2012 Humanitarian Award from Mission 500, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving children and communities in crisis. The award pays tribute to individuals in the security industry who make important contributions to those in need.

“It is an honor to receive this award,” Jensby said in a prepared statement. “I am very proud to be joining an elite group of previous winners. Giving back is near and dear to my heart, especially in these rough economic times.”

At Monitronics, Jensby has taken the lead on volunteer initiatives to help the Salvation Army and a North Texas food bank. The efforts of Jensby and her teams include preparing and serving meals, unloading trucks, stocking shelves, clearing tables and washing dishes.

She also led a sock drive for the Salvation Army and a silverware drive that brought in 500 forks, knives and spoons. Before the donation, workers had to wash silverware before serving the next group of people at each meal.

“Fork it over had an entirely different meaning,” Jensby told Security Systems News. “[I] told the central station employees what was needed and they came through for this big donation.”

Jensby has served as chairwoman of the Monitronics Christmas committee since 2008. Last Christmas, her Monitronics team “adopted” 55 fifth-graders from a local elementary school and made sure they received more gifts than the year before by increasing donations to the company's toy drive. She also headed an effort to wrap and donate Christmas gifts for 81 residents of a local nursing home.

“Volunteering is important to me because it gives me the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life at a time when they need it most,” Jensby said. “It's not about making monetary donations or contributions; it's about the self-satisfaction that I had an impact to make someone or something better, even if it was for a short time.”

Jensby will receive the Mission 500 award at ISC West in Las Vegas. The ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. March 29 during the Security 5K reception on the show floor.