Mayor’s Volunteer Award 2015

In the summer of 2015, Grants Pass (Oregon) Mayor Darin Fowler initiated the Annual Mayor’s Volunteer Awards.  This event was put on to recognize the contribution of the city’s commissions and committees as well as the other volunteers that make this community shine. Three awards were given: volunteer group of the year, volunteer of the year, and mayor’s future citizen of the year scholarship.

The Mayor said, “The Volunteer Group of the Year Award recognizes a community group that has made a significant contribution to the overall health and livability of the City of Grants Pass.  The winning group makes a significant impact by enabling and empowering individuals to improve their knowledge and skills toward greater quality of life; demonstrating exceptional commitment to volunteerism by helping with a special project or ongoing activities;  and demonstrating exemplary leadership, creativity, cooperation and hard work in their service to others”.

Mayor Fowler, in announcing the Josephine County Foundation as the 1st winner of the Annual Mayor’s Volunteer Group of the Year Award, said that the winning group was a relatively new organization, not one which has been serving the community for years, but he was so impressed with the uniqueness of what the students were doing and what they had accomplished serving the community in such a short period of time that deciding the first winner was a relatively easy decision.

“With so many non-profits serving many of the vital needs in our community, it was a great honor for the Mayor of Grants Pass to select JCF as the first winner of his prestigious Volunteer Group of the Year.  JCF’s continuous service in the future should make the Mayor proud of his decision to recognize JCF”, said JCF student Kali Henderson.

During this event, the JCF students had the honor of meeting many influential members of the community and hear about what they do.

“This  was a great experience for me because I got to meet so many other volunteers and hear about what they were doing for our community”, said JCF student Katherine Haley