By Mariah Singer-Brown
Jensen Community Center Associate Director
Each year, the Jensen Community Spirit awards deserving members of our community by publicly recognizing their efforts. We are all lucky to live in this area, where many wonderful people donate their time, talents, and resources to local organizations and programs that benefit our community. It is the people here that make our village amazing, and we value the contributions that our community members make.
We are asking you to help us by nominating a person or business/organization in our community that you feel is deserving of special recognition. Since 2004, we have recognized a Person of the Year; and in 2018, the Junior Person of the Year and Business/Organization of the Year awards were added. Please help us recognize the wonderful people in our community by making a nomination for the 2024 awards using the form on page 3 of the August Spirit or by visiting jensencenter.org/jensen-community-spirit/award-nominations to fill out the form there. Completed online forms will be electronically submitted to the Jensen Center, or you can drop off completed physical forms at the Jensen Community Center during normal business hours. The deadline for nominations is September 1. As always, the awards will be chosen by the Amherst Area Foundation Board of Directors. Awards will be announced in the October issue of the Community Spirit.
Person of the Year
The “Person of the Year” award was established by the Community Spirit in 2004 to honor individuals who go the extra mile by generously donating their time, talents, and resources to local organizations and programs.
Junior Person of the Year
The “Junior Person of the Year” award was created to honor a person aged 18 or younger. This award recognizes a young member of the Tomorrow River community who makes a positive impact on the lives of others. They inspire their peers to be productive and positive community members.
Business/Organization of the Year
This award was created to recognize a business or organization in our area that has made a positive impact on the Tomorrow River community through economic impact or social support of the community. This nominee must operate in our community, giving generously of themselves and/or staff in time and resources in the community.
Thank you for taking the time to help us recognize some outstanding people in our community!
Previous Award Winners
Person of the Year: Mark Olson (2004), Don Aylesworth (2005), Hans and Jane Suomi (2006), Rich Stuczynski (2007), Shelly Platten (2008), Janet Glodowski (2009), Ken and Barb Konkol (2010), Connie Pitt (2011), Aralda Bell (2012), Terry Anderson (2013), Butch Somers (2014), Jake Barnes (2015), Nina Cass (2016), Russ and Linda Schroeder (2017), Ed Haebig (2018), Victor Voss (2019), Kris and Dave Crubaugh (2020), Bob and Chris Lane (2021), Ida Frizzell (2022), and Verna Toftum (2023).
Business/Organization of the Year: International Bank of Amherst (2018), Ambrosia Pub and Grill (2019), The Village Hive (2020), Judah Studios (2021), Hidden Studios Art Tour (2022), and 13 Chairs (2023).
Junior Person of the Year: Ben Villnow (2018), Makena Maves (2019), Abigail Helbach (2020), JoJo Peplinski (2021), Landen Prescher (2022), and Scout Spadoni (2023).
The 2023 Spirit Award winners were (left to right): Person of the Year Verna Toftum, Junior Person of the Year Scout Spadoni, and Business of the Year 13 Chairs (with nominator Nina Cass and recipient Eleonore Hebal).