RUTHMARY ALLISON Nominated by Joanna Stortz, HopeWest

Ruthmary Allison has volunteered with HopeWest since 2008, supporting the organization’s mission by supporting clinical staff and patients at our care center, and providing patient companionship, spiritual support, vigil support and making memory bears for families in remembrance of their loved one. To top it all, Ruthmary is a retired teacher—at one point, she worked with a patient who was learning to read. Ruthmary is truly a wonderful volunteer and we appreciate her in all that she does. We are forever grateful!

LOREE WILLIAMS

Nominated by Leslye Mackelwich, La Villa Grande Care Center Loree Williams became part of the La Villa Grande family in 2009 when her husband became a resident here. After he passed away three and a half years ago, she remained a part of our family by taking on the role of volunteer. Loree’s loving kindness and her calm personality are perfect for her role as one-to-one volunteer. She spends time with many of our residents twice a week—she reads to them, takes them snacks or coffee, repairs tears or lost buttons on clothing, reminisces and talks with them, or just listens to them and encourages them. Loree is a bright spot in what might otherwise be a gloomy time in our residents’ lives. We love and appreciate her very much.

DAVID BUTLER

Nominated by Laura Taylor, Roice-Hurst Humane Society In addition to the selfless hours he dedicates to working on behavior modification and socialization with our shelter dogs and getting them ready for adoption, Dave Butler also works our low-cost vaccination clinics, helps at off-site events and recently offered to transport shelter animals. Dave has been a long-standing and dedicated volunteer to Roice-Hurst and contributed over 125 hours in 2017.

 

KEVIN KENNEDY

Nominated by Weesa Hild, Habitat for Humanity of the San Juans Kevin Kennedy is our rock star volunteer. He started volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of the San Juans as a volunteer for our film festival in 2016. Since then, he has helped us build homes by volunteering two to three days a week. Kevin has been instrumental in helping families get into homes they would otherwise be unable to afford.

 

TERRI POTENTE

Nominated by Diane Barger, Mesa County RSVP Terri Potente has been a Mesa County RSVP volunteer since 1999, and has been instrumental in impacting our community through over 3,100 volunteer hours. She has shared her skills and talents with local organizations, such as Loma Cat House, Salvation Army, Senior Initiative, City of Fruita Parks and Recreation and the Counseling and Education Center. She has been involved with AARP at the state level on the Executive Council and as Community Liaison. Terri has been a strong advocate for animals and older adults, and is always willing to speak up for under-served populations. Her generous spirit and tremendous energy is an inspiration to others. She is often on the forefront of new initiatives and has the gift of empowering others to take action for what they believe in.'

NANCY BALL

Nominated by Tanya Ishikawa, League of Women Voters of Montrose County Nancy Ball works tirelessly to make sure the Montrose community has new programming to learn about voting issues, voter rights, campaigns, candidates and elections. She puts out the monthly voter newsletter for the local League of Women Voters, and does lots of work behind the scenes to keep the organization running. She helps organize candidate forums and voter registration drives, and is very active on the board, keeping us up to date on state and national issues. She is creative, kind, open, supportive and a true go-getter. ERIC WYNN Nominated by Niki Yenter, Gray Gourmet Eric Wynn started volunteering with Gray Gourmet’s home delivery in 2011 and has remained a steady force while continuing to work other jobs. When there is a need, Eric jumps in to help. He will have completed several tasks in the time that most are still figuring out what needs to be done. Eric delivers meals to our homebound customers five days a week. He has made friends, even on the routes that he subs for, because our homebound customers see him so regularly. Eric’s heart is so big—he has also raised money for a children’s orphanage in his hometown in Myanmar. Eric demonstrates in real-life the saying that actions speak louder than words.

WYNNE BOULEY

Nominated by Bobbi Alpha, Community Concerts of the Grand Valley Wynne Bouley has many friends in the Grand Valley and regularly volunteers her time with multiple terrific nonprofit groups. We are lucky to have her as the PR and marketing volunteer for Community Concerts of the Grand Valley (CCGV). Wynne has a contagious sense of energy and enthusiasm in everything she does—it particularly shows when she’s promoting! She promotes each of our concerts and our spring sales campaign by personally contacting every media service in the area. She initiated a donation program for using our CCGV season tickets in many local nonprofit silent auctions and fundraising events. Our season ticket sales have been sold out—in big part due to Wynne! Thank you, Wynne! We really love and appreciate you!

SUE SCHORE

Nominated by Shar Weiser, Grand Valley Valor Quilters Sue Schore leads the local Quilts of Valor Foundation with the mission to cover veterans and active duty military personnel with a quilt of comfort and gratitude. This small group of local volunteer quilters has presented quilts to over 40 local personnel in the short two and a half years it has been in existence.

 

 

TOM SCHROER

Nominated by Christy Douglass, Harmony Acres Equestrian Center Tom Schroer is our behind-the-scenes guy at Harmony Acres Equestrian Center. He is one of those volunteers who always shows up and takes on the jobs no one else wants to, such as mucking out the horse pens, fixing our waterers at 6 a.m. in winter, or helping us with our off-the-wall projects always with a smile on his face. Though not a “horse person,” he has learned horse handling and side walking to assist disabled children and adults in our therapeutic riding program, and has helped gentle and train one of our rescue ponies. His calm and gentle demeanor lends confidence to all the horses and people around him.

CLEO CASTLE

Nominated by Krisi Lente Cleo Castle, 74, volunteers at the library, food drive and Catholic outreach. She also helps with her granddaughter while her daughter works full time. Even though she is on a fixed income, Cleo constantly donates food, money and time to those in need. A retired registered nurse, she still contributes to health care by being a board member for our Emergency Services Committee, dedicating several hours and resources to ensuring we have the best plan in place in the case of a state-wide emergency. She is truly genuine and has the biggest heart.

KATE WEISSENBURGER

Nominated by Susan Carter, CSU Extension Master Gardener Program Our Master Gardeners need to do 12 hours of education and 24 hours of volunteering. Kate Weissenburger did 74 hours of education and 104 of volunteering with it all focused on helping the Master Gardener Program. She mentors, teaches soils to apprentices, makes plant house calls, answers phones and helps with diagnostics. Kate even came in to work the desk when her foot was in a support from surgery. We depend on our volunteers to help the community and Kate is a star at it.

Cast your vote!