Seven Kent community volunteers received the first Service Above Self awards from The Rotary Club of Kent Sunrise during a gala club event Saturday night at the ShoWare Center.
“Part of the Rotary is our motto of Service Above Self, so we decided the people who exemplify this should be recognized,” said Lisa Voso, chairwoman of the Rotary Service Committee, about the reason the club began to honor individual volunteers. “We wonder now why we didn’t start it sooner, but it will be an annual tradition.”
The awards were added this year to the Rotary’s annual Harvest for the Community fundraiser that included dinner, silent and live auctions, a wine raffle and a dessert dash.
More than 260 people attended the event that raises money to fund the club’s service projects. Tickets were $45 each.
The club raised about $30,000 for service projects, including $10,000 for Communities in Schools, said Fergus Prestbye, Rotary president. Communities in Schools helps provide basic resources for students in need.
Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke announced the award winners. Each individual received an engraved plaque.
The volunteers who received the Service Above Self awards were:
• Jessica Alcanter – Alcanter has volunteered for five years at Arbor Village, a continuing care retirement community in Kent. She visits with residents every Wednesday along with her dog, Dolly. Alcanter also does manicures with the ladies and some of the gentlemen.
• Sherry Barchus – Barchus volunteers at the Kent Senior Cneter, the Riverview Community Church and at Highline Community College. She works several days a week to organize the library at the Senior Center. She also helps with database management at her church and with the Senior College program at Highline.
• Ralph and Barbara Horn – The couple leads monthly work parties for the Rotarians at the Northwest Harvest warehouse in Kent to repackage the truckloads of bulk fruits and vegetables that Rotary First Harvest collects from donors statewide to deliver to food banks.
• Kent Brooten – Brooten has been a Boy Scout Scoutmaster for Troop 474 in Kent for 38 years. He has touched the lives of hundreds of boys, many of whom are now Eagle Scouts in a variety of professions and who are leaders in our community.
• Robin Blake and Dianna Madison – Blake and Madison began co-chairing the Kent clothing bank in September 2007 and continued until July 2009. They helped revive a clothing bank that now serves the entire Kent School District (40 schools) providing clothing, school supplies, books, personal items, and other emergency items to families in need.
For more information, go to www.kentsunriserotary.org.
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