Williams named Volunteer of the Year

PALMER — Longtime Valley resident and volunteer Ola Williams was honored at last week’s Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce meeting with the 2010 Dorothy A. Jones Volunteer of the Year Award.

Although Williams doesn’t have a daughter of her own, she’s been an adult volunteer for the Girl Scout program for the past 34 years. Last year she received the Thanks Badge, Girl Scouting’s highest adult award.

In 1999, she began assisting with the Girl Scout Cookie Depot and took over managing it in 2002. The project involves coordinating more than 100 volunteers, site location and 84,000 boxes of cookies. Williams has pickups scheduled every five minutes throughout a 10-hour period.

In addition to being cookie coordinator from Glacier View through Trapper Creek, Williams has lead two Girl Scout troops and a Daisy kindergarten troop. She is the Little Su Area unit manager for Girl Scouts.

Williams also has formed partnerships between the local Girl Scouts and the community to benefit the Willow Food Bank and Spring Community Clean-up. Last year she organized Girl Scouts to sew large holiday stockings filled with donated ornaments and personal hygiene items for local senior citizens and school children.

But Williams’ contributions aren’t limited to Girl Scouts. She also volunteers at Willow Elementary’s afterschool program for girls. She is active in her local church and coordinates multiple churches and organizations to provide Thanksgiving dinners. Last year, they served 156 families.

She operates the Willow Food Bank one week a month and helps keep it supplied. She also works with the government commodities section.

And she has volunteered for the Junior Iditarod for the past 10 years as the parent communication coordinator. In the past, she used a HAM radio, but today she uses signals from tracking devices on each sled to follow the junior mushers and then posts the information on the Internet for parents. The Junior Iditarod has recognized her efforts by making her an honorary musher.

Also nominated for the 2010 Dorothy A. Jones Volunteer of the Year Award were Carl Baker, Ian Brown, Bill Haller, Joe Kiren, Mary Omar, Bill Morrow and Travis Wilkerson.

Established in 1993 by United Way of Mat-Su, the annual award honors the memory of Dorothy A. Jones, a community leader who helped improve the quality of life for Valley residents. Until the end of her life, Jones served on the United Way board of directors, in addition to her many other areas of service.

The annual award is intended to honor individuals for exceptional volunteer service in health and human service nonprofit activities. Nominees must live and volunteer in the Mat-Su Borough. A distinguished panel of community leaders judges the nominees based on length and breadth of service, as well as positive impact to the community.