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Deadline is Tuesday for Jefferson Awards nominations

Deadline is Tuesday for Jefferson Awards nominations

Yahoo14-02-2025

Feb. 14—LIMA — The deadline is drawing near to recognize people's good work for the community.
The deadline to nominate an outstanding adult or youth volunteer for the 2025 Jefferson Awards for Public Service is 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18. Nominate online at LimaOhio.com/JeffersonAwards.
The United Way of Greater Lima, The Lima News, Your Hometown Stations, Cenovus, Milano Café and Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center work cooperatively to bring the Jefferson Awards to Lima/Allen County and its contiguous counties.
From all nominations submitted, up to eight adult applications and up to four youth applications will be selected as the 2025 Jefferson Award winners. The selections will be made by a panel of area leaders and past Jefferson Awards winners. Each winner will receive a Jefferson Awards bronze medallion at a banquet on March 25 and a cash prize for the nonprofit of their choice.
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Jefferson Awards: Potts helps provide food for veterans
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Jefferson Awards: Potts helps provide food for veterans

Mar. 18—LIMA — Her title may be director of the the Veterans Food Pantry of Northwest Ohio. To watch Elizabeth "Betsy" Potts in action on a recent morning, she mostly directs herself as a devoted volunteer for the organization, which offers two to three days' worth of food for area veterans, free of charge. She helped the volunteers who grabbed boxes of food items off a truck by carrying boxes of cans and putting them into storage. She pulled a cart of cans of vegetables and started placing them on shelves, in preparation for the veterans who'd visit later that day. "So many of our veterans had a hard time when they were in the service," said Potts, who served in the Marine Corps writing orders stateside and working in the mailroom during the Vietnam War. "... They're just so grateful for having someplace to go. We find some of our veterans will come in here because they're in a group of veterans who understand: 'Oh, where were you? What unit were you in?' All that. That's a little side thing that is gratifying sometimes." Potts is one of eight local winners of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service and will get a $300 donation to the charity of her choice on her behalf. All the winners will be recognized at an event Tuesday, March 25, with one winner receiving an additional $700 donation for a non-profit. Potts started volunteering at the food pantry 15 years ago, when it was in the basement of Memorial Hall, after moving back to Lima with her husband, an Air Force veteran from the Vietnam era, after working at post offices in Charlotte and Columbus. She served as a co-director after five years and became its sole director, a volunteer position, five years ago. The pantry moved to 810 W. North St. in February 2015 and serves 275 families every month during its pickups on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. It's a choice food pantry, meaning veterans pick what they want while they're there. It's completely funded by donations and is financially stable right now, Potts said. It benefits from other veterans and civilian organizations raising money on its behalf and some savvy buying of non-perishable goods by Potts. Sometimes it gets fresh fruits and vegetables or even eggs donated to help veterans. "Volunteerism is at the heart of Ms. Potts' daily activities," Denis Glenn wrote in his nomination letter for the Jefferson Awards. "She encourages others to volunteer by not only her words but by her actions. She crosses many diverse paths and treats all with respect, something she learned from her days as a U.S. Marine." Potts also serves as the paymaster at the Marine Corps League, treasurer with the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 089, treasurer with the Daughters of the American Revolution and as a member of the Friends of the Library. She also enjoys genealogical research, where she found she had a second-great-grandfather, George Washington Lowery, who served in the Civil War and other ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War. She said she was surprised when she learned she was a local winner of the Jefferson Awards, showing her humility along the way. "You read the stories of everybody else that has been here or dominating anything," she said. "You know, all I do is run a pantry. It takes maybe 20 to 30 hours a week that I'm doing something for the pantry. It just completely shocked me. I just couldn't believe it." JEFFERSON AWARDS The 2025 Jefferson Awards for Public Service committee has selected nine winners from throughout the region, including eight adult winners and one youth winner. They will be honored at a banquet March 25 at Veterans Memorial Civic Center in downtown Lima. Read past Jefferson Awards profiles at Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter/X @Lima_Trinko. Featured Local Savings

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