It’s been another of those hard, hard weeks in Mount Vernon and Lisbon, where we’ve lost several great citizens.
Two of them were news stories in last week’s newspaper, where obituaries weren’t ready when we were putting the newspaper to bed, but their impact either in their profession or in their volunteerism and in this community combined rose above just being an obituary. As many citizens noted on Kate Rose’s Facebook wall, her impact made so many people’s lives better in these communities.
Another that was an obituary last week was a longtime teacher at Lisbon Schools. Members of the school board and administrative team spoke at the recent school board meeting about the level of dedication Amanda Meeker brought to her classroom each day, despite the illnesses she had been fighting, and how much of an impact that loss had on that school community.
As Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group director Joe Jennison said this week at a CDG lunch meeting discussing business and other happenings coming up in Mount Vernon and Lisbon, the Uptown Theatres Gala Honors were continuing their choice to honor living people in these communities who have made an impact, with the next batch of honorees up for awards Saturday, Oct. 1. That committee had both Myrt Bowers and Kate Rose on their short list to be honored this year, and, while Rose will be posthumously honored at the event, it speaks again to the volume of some of these decisions in these communities to make sure we honor those who are still with us when they can hear those accolades, as well as sometimes that there are so many to be honored in these communities.
Rogers received many of the awards and accolades from her peers prior to passing and she was influential, even after being a president of the historic preservation commission, to continue preserving the history of the communities of Mount Vernon and Lisbon and countless other communities.
There are hundreds of citizens who have an impact daily in making these communities the places we all love to live. Who exhibit the ideals and messages we want the community to have, that work with Rose and Rogers’ tenacity in causes they believed in supporting.
For citizens like Meeker, Rose and Rogers, and the countless other volunteers who continually make these communities better places by giving of their time, talents, energy and commitment, we are all ever grateful.