CURWENSVILLE – Over the past 42 years, a group from Curwensville has been presenting the “Service Above Self/Citizen of the Year” honor to a deserving recipient of the Curwensville area. The Rotary Club of Curwensville assumed the honor of presenting this achievement award in 1976, and has been honoring a resident, group of residents, an organization, or a business of the Curwensville area for outstanding service to the residents of our area and beyond for the past 37 years.
The Rotary bases their selection on the Rotary International Motto: “Service above Self.” The person, persons, groups, or business’ that have received the award have given freely of their time and talents without any thoughts of personal gain, personal honors or monetary gain. Because of this and the ever changing demographics of volunteerism and community contributions, the Curwensville Rotary Club had decided to change the name of this award from the “Citizen of the Year” Award to the “Service Above Self” Award several years ago.
This honor is not a trophy to be won or an accolade of small significance. This is an achievement that has to be earned. The person, persons, groups, or business’ that have been the recipient of this award are not necessarily the most notable in the community, but a person that has given of their time and talents and worked for the common good of everyone both in Curwensville and the surrounding communities. It is also not a popularity contest.
They did it because it was the right thing to do and also because they want to see their community thrive and grow and realize that Curwensville is a great place to live and raise a family.
The past five winners of this honor are as follows:
2007 Community Care Group of Ridgeview Elder Care
2008 Margaret Wingard
2009 Curwensville Ministerium
2010 Lois Richards
2011 Carole & Dorce Michaels
The selection committee, this year, consisted of all the members of the Curwensville Rotary Club. In order to broaden our selection process, the club also accepted nominations from our fellow service clubs, fraternal organizations, and the community at large to get a broad base for our selection. Each nominee is then researched to determine who would be most worthy of the honor. Several years ago they expanded our potential recipients to include groups, organizations or businesses.
Now to this years recipients. This year’s honorees are a group.
This group has been in existence since 1969, and they manage a facility in Curwensville which is open to any citizen or group in the Curwensville Area to use. This group is completely non-profit and all of the members give freely of their time and talents.
This group is currently in the middle of a fund raising project that will bring much needed repairs and updates to the facility. Some of the updates that have been done so far are new flooring, new windows, new exterior doors, new insulation, a new kitchen with new cook tops, ovens, refrigerators, and cabinets. Also there is new lighting throughout the building, new soffit and fascia, new rain spouting, and new paint.
Other projects that need to be funded are new heating/air conditioning using a geothermal system and upgrading the snack area in the main room.
The total goal for the fundraising is $ 200,000.00 and so far $124,000.00 has been collected
Some of the groups in the area that use the facilities on a regular basis are:
The GFWC Curwensville Women’s Club, the Curwensville Recreational Soccer Association, The Curwensville Days Committee, T.O.P.S., Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Curwensville Little League, Curwensville Midget Football, Rotary Club of Curwensville, Curwensville Christian Church, Curwensville Community Baptist Church Clearfield County Environmental Corps, Clearfield County Farm Bureau, Zumba Dance/Fitness, and Lezzer Lumber. There are others that use the facility sporadically during the year.
The recipients of this years’ “Service Above Self” award are:
Curwensville Community Center Board
The current officers are: Gerald “Joe” Wills – president, J. Duane Test – vice president, Joseph Bakaysa – treasurer, Shelia Williams – secretary; fundraising co-chairmen are John Wright and J. Duane Test; and board members are Joan Domico and Gino Trifelli. Michelle And Dave Clark are the caretakers/custodians of the building.
Donation cards can be picked up at the Curwensville Rotary Club Booth or any Community Center board member or officer.
