Neenah Rotary Club Presents Service Awards
NEENAH, WI (July 7, 2011) – The Neenah Rotary Club presented its annual service awards on June 30 during the Club’s annual “Changing of the Guard” Banquet at the Best Western Bridgewood Resort Hotel and Conference Center.
Honor recipients of the Jack W. Casper Service Above Self Youth Award and a $1,500 scholarship were Meghan Hickey, a senior at Neenah High School, and Heidi Loper, a senior at St. Mary Central High School.
“The Neenah Rotary Club is pleased to be able to annually recognize the extraordinary youth in our community, and provide them the encouragement of this award and scholarship,” noted Dennis L. Simon, chairman of the Neenah Rotary Club Awards Committee.
The Neenah Rotary Club’s “Service Above Self Award” is presented each year to a Neenah-area high school senior nominated and selected as best demonstrating concern for and interest in the pursuit of community action. Nominees are chosen on the basis of outstanding school and community service activities. There are years in which the Club has determined that more than one nominee has met these criteria exceptionally well and 2011 is such a year.
Hickey’s volunteer and service activities include: mission service trips in Minnesota, Wisconsin and in Missouri, where she served as a personal mentor for a special needs child; site improvement work for the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley; volunteering for her church’s Vacation Bible School program and as a worship leader and youth group leader; volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity; help with food drives, blood drives and other community service opportunities through school groups and as a National Honor Society member; as a mentor for Best Friends; and as a Walk for Autism volunteer.
Loper’s service and community contributions include: Catholic Heart Work Camp in Minnesota; Global Outreach Summer Leadership Camp in the Czech Republic; Best Friends mentoring; Liturgy Committee, fund-raisers, and various other service activities for her church parish; World Affairs Seminar; volunteer sports coaching of middle-school students; and food drives, fund-raising, and a number of other Key Club service activities through her school.
Burt Westover was presented with the Jack W. Casper Service Above Self Adult Award. This award is given each year to a Neenah-area adult, not a member of the Neenah Rotary Club, who best represents the idea of community action. Nominees are chosen on the basis of their outstanding community service. Westover has led an active role for many years in such activities as: ThedaCare Lifeline program volunteer (18+ years) and ThedaCare Auxiliary volunteer (board of directors); Neenah-Menasha Red Cross (board of directors); Boys’ & Girls’ Brigade; United Way Allocations Panel; Salvation Army Board of Directors, Capital Campaign, and 18-year bell ringer; Bletzinger [Rehabilitation] House (board of directors); City of Neenah Board of Appeals; Neenah Rotary Club (non club member) fundraiser volunteer; and Finance Committee member and various other activities for his church.
Dave Kohlmeyer received the Jack R. Grist Club Service Award. This award is presented each year to an active member of the Club who has a long record of service to the Neenah Rotary and the community.
Kohlmeyer has been a prominent and active member of the Neenah Rotary Club for 14 years, including six years on the Club’s board of directors, a term as Club president, ten years of involvement with the Club’s STRIVE Committee. He is presently coordinating the Club’s STRIVE II Committee, and has also invested time on the Club’s Membership, Awards, and GSE Team Committees. Additionally, his involvement has included a wide variety of service projects and fund-raising committees, service as interim Club treasurer and significant involvement in the Club’s sister organization, the Neenah Rotary Foundation, where he serves on the board of directors and in the role of secretary, as well as a member of its Investment and Scholarship Committees.
Kohlmeyer’s service to the broader community has included BEAMING (board of directors, executive committee and treasurer), Reach Counseling Services (board of directors and treasurer), Best Friends, as a host of foreign exchange students, along with his wife, Dana, St. Mary High School Zephyrfest Committee, Appleton Medical Center Foundation Annual Heart Walk, and various activities with his church parish and other community organizations.
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Founded in 1925, the Neenah Rotary Club is a service organization of about 100 business and professional men and women united in fellowship worldwide, who conduct local and international humanitarian projects, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and work towards understanding and peace.