NRV Leading Lights honors 36 local volunteers
New River Valley Leading Lights recently honored 36 community volunteers at a special ceremony held on April 12. The volunteers were recognized at an event at the German Club at Virginia Tech.
The New River Valley Leading Lights organization’s mission is to acknowledge and honor volunteers across the New River Valley who are making community changing impacts through volunteerism, culminating in an annual celebratory banquet. Past Leading Lights honoree Martha Ann Stallings of Blacksburg served as this year’s guest speaker.
High school nominees included Camden Hite, Pulaski County High School; Gabriella Martin; Pulaski County High School; Krystal Mattson, Pulaski County High School; Gwendolyn Puckett, Pulaski County High School; Josiah Shrestha, Blacksburg High School; Grace Trent, Narrows High School; and Thai Yuvanavattana, Floyd County High School.
Aaron Howard and Abigail Ridpath, both New River Community College students represented college nominees.
Morris Fleisher was nominated from Giles County. Nominees from Floyd County included Kamala Bauers and Jack Wall, Jane Cundiff, Karen Grosshans, Paul Tremblett, and Jean Woods. Nominees from Montgomery included John Beasley, Sherri Blevins, Teresa Cassell, Donna Christian, Sandra Hagman, Andrae Hash, Polly Myers, Peggy Rasnick, and Vern Simpson. Nominees from Pulaski County were Sybil Atkinson, Harriet Berry, Dave Dobyns, Jason Golden, Gary and Meghan Hash, Pete Huber, and Hazel Wines. Garnie Dishon, and Amanda Jimenez Thornton were the Radford City nominees. Dora Butler of Radford, Susan Icove of Floyd County, and Lester Karlin of Montgomery County were all nominated in the Lifetime Achievement category.
From the 36 nominees, 11 were chosen as Distinguished Recipients. The 2022 Leading Lights Distinguished Recipients honored included Grace Trent (high school), Thai Yuvanavattana (high school), Aaron Howard (college), Abigail Ridpath (college), Harriet Berry (Pulaski County), Teresa Cassell (Montgomery County), Garnie Dishon (Radford), Morris Fleisher (Giles County), Vern Simpson (Montgomery County), and Jean Woods (Floyd County). Susan Icove of Floyd County was named as the Lifetime Achievement Distinguished Recipient.
The community Distinguished Recipients receive $500 to direct to a non-profit of their choice, and the Lifetime Achievement recipient receives $1,000 to direct. The nominees’ volunteer efforts include work with food pantries, emergency response, afterschool programs, libraries, Covid-19 vaccinations, community groups, clothing drives, community cleanup, education, environmental causes, and many more.
NRV Leading Lights was established in 2007, prompted by the outpouring of voluntary service after the April 16 events at Virginia Tech. The first Leading Lights Recognition Event was held in April 2009. These annual events highlight the extraordinary compassion of ordinary citizens who united in service to others.
To learn more about NRV Leading lights, visit www.leadinglightsnrv.org. NRV Leading Lights will be seeking volunteer nominations later this year for the 2023 awards.