Volunteers from 53 counties will be honored at the Ninth Annual Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards ceremony at the Franklin Marriot Cool Springs in Franklin on February 12th, 2017. The award will celebrate the efforts of 84 volunteers statewide who have strived to improve their communities through service. Miss Tennessee 2016, Grace Burgess will present the awards, and NewsChannel5 weekend anchor, Jennifer Kraus, will serve as emcee for the event.
One youth and one adult volunteer were selected from participating counties to receive this prestigious award. Nominees were judged based on the community’s need of the volunteer service performed, initiative taken to perform the service, creativity used to solve a community problem and impact of the volunteer service on the community.
Dekalb County’s own Jen Sherwood is an Adult Honoree. Sherwood has served as the Leadership DeKalb Director since its inception in 2000. Without any financial compensation, Jen has worked tirelessly to create, recruit, organize and teach the Leadership DeKalb program with such a passionate and creative spirit. She also serves her county in numerous other capacities, working with the Boy Scouts of America, Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce, Education Foundation, Operation Head to Toe, Leadership Alumni and the First Harvest Food Ministry, to name a few, as well as serving on many boards. In addition to being an active member of her community, she serves many roles in her church, including teaching Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.
The Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards also includes business and non-profit categories. One business and one non-profit were selected from each of Tennessee’s three Grand Regions for their outstanding community involvement and service. The business honorees include: Scripps Networks Interactive, East Tennessee Business Honoree; Tractor Supply Company, Middle Tennessee Business Honoree; and Gibson Electric Membership Corporation, West Tennessee Business Honoree. The business awards are sponsored by Advance Financial. The non-profit honorees include: First Tennessee Human Resource Agency Nutrition Program, East Tennessee Non-Profit Honoree; The Heimerdinger Foundation, Middle Tennessee Non-Profit Honoree; and Paris Youth Enrichment Project Inc, West Tennessee Non-Profit Honoree. The non-profit awards are sponsored by Friends of Volunteer Tennessee.
Tractor Supply Company is a Middle Tennessee Business Honoree. Tractor Supply Company allows each of their 850 Williamson County Corporate Office team members eight paid hours to volunteer in the community. They can choose to volunteer in Williamson County or in their hometown. The volunteer projects are coordinated through the United Way of Williamson County Volunteer Center. Volunteer projects run from painting inside of schools, gardening, painting miles of fencing, working on cards for homebound Meals on Wheels participants, helping retrofit a home for a child who now uses a wheelchair to doing a video for a nonprofit agency.
Everyone in the footprint of Tractor Supply benefits from this program. Williamson County, Cheatham County, Wilson County, Hickman County, Maury County, Rutherford County … anywhere a Tractor team member may live. Tractor Supply is a great neighbor and exemplifies a great corporate neighbor.
“Each year, 1.1 million Tennessee volunteers give more than 143 million hours of service, contributing the equivalent of $3.4 billion to Tennessee’s economy. They are the backbone of our great state, and by giving of their time and talents to fulfill needs that would otherwise go unmet, they truly embody the spirit of giving,” said Volunteer Tennessee Executive Director, Jim Snell.
Volunteer Tennessee coordinates the Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards at the state level. Volunteer Tennessee is the 25 member bipartisan citizen board appointed by the Governor to oversee AmeriCorps and service-learning programs and to advance volunteerism and citizen service to solve community problems in the Volunteer State.
