Ritchey and Weiler receive Tucker Awards

By Alberta Stojkovic -

Mount Gilead Mayor, Mike Porter intro­duced the 2012 Dr. Nathan Tucker Award recip­i­ents Betty Ritchey and Mar­i­lyn Weiler at the August meet­ing of the Cham­ber of Com­merce last week. Porter called them both “com­mu­nity minded” and “remark­able women” as he read their many accomplishments.

Porter said the award, which was estab­lished by the Mount Gilead Vil­lage Coun­cil, hon­ors indi­vid­u­als each year for excel­lence in con­tribut­ing in some way to make the vil­lage a bet­ter place to live. Cit­i­zens are nom­i­nated for the award for their vol­un­teer work or some other con­tri­bu­tion to enrich the lives of peo­ple in the community.

He first intro­duced Betty Ritchey. Betty has served her com­mu­nity as a baby sit­ter for Blood Mobile donors, Cub Scout Den Mother, and Chore Crew Super­vi­sor. She was March of Dimes Coor­di­na­tor for Mor­row County, A Recre­ation Board Mem­ber for Mount Gilead, Mor­row County Hos­pi­tal Twig Mem­ber, Card­ing­ton Amer­i­can Legion Ladies Aux­il­iary Mem­ber, and Mor­row County Sal­va­tion Army Board Member.

She has been very active with Mor­row County Seniors on Cen­ter as Meals on Wheels vol­un­teer and in other respon­si­bil­i­ties for Seniors on Cen­ter. She served as Mor­row County Elec­tion Poll Worker, Mount Gilead Troop 56 Boy Scout Com­mit­tee Mem­ber and vol­un­teered with the Mor­row County C.A.P. Office.

Betty taught Sun­day School, was Church Sec­re­tary at the First Bap­tist Church in Mount Gilead and also coor­di­nated Bible School there. She took on the role of Town Santa Claus and The Town Clown for many years. She was also HPM Retiree’s secretary.

There were many nods in agree­ment when Porter said that “Betty along with Thelma Wig­ton taught a gen­er­a­tion of young girls the fine art of soft­ball. Betty influ­enced the lives of many young women through the years as a men­tor, a coach, and as a friend.”

Betty was nom­i­nated for the award by her grand­son, Chad Ritchey.

The sec­ond Tucker award was given to Mar­i­lyn Weiler. The nom­i­na­tion was made by last year’s recip­i­ent, Cindy Fidler. Fidler noted that Weiler has made out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the vil­lage, although she is not a resident.

Mar­i­lyn has been the Nat­u­ral­ist at the Mount Gilead State Lakes Park for many years. Dur­ing this time she has been instru­men­tal in get­ting a Nature Cen­ter built and in run­ning it. She estab­lished a fish­ing pro­gram for chil­dren and runs a nature pro­gram through­out the sum­mer for local chil­dren and chil­dren of campers.

Mar­i­lyn also runs the Earth Day pro­gram for all sec­ond graders in the county as well as the Snow Flake Fes­ti­val in the win­ter. In addi­tion she trav­els to any and all the ele­men­tary class­rooms with nature pro­grams. Mar­i­lyn is a tire­less worker who cares about chil­dren. She was a first grade teacher at High­land West for many years. Mar­i­lyn believes that chil­dren need to be out­doors and to learn about nature. She has pro­vided count­less oppor­tu­ni­ties for them to do so. She has def­i­nitely made a won­der­ful con­tri­bu­tion to the Mount Gilead com­mu­nity and to the chil­dren in the area.

Mar­i­lyn has served on the Mor­row County Lit­ter Advi­sory Board as well as being a 4-H Advi­sor and active with many activ­i­ties in the County Exten­sion Pro­grams. She is a mem­ber of the Har­mony United Methodist Church.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Aug 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.