“Our community is really good at honoring people after they’re gone. They never have the opportunity to know how much they meant and what they meant to the community in the role that they played,” Flax Wilt said.
Jeanne Lampe
Rittenhouse said she worked with Lampe for several years at the Champions Center as part of the Clark County Cattle Producers and cattle show.
“Having worked with Jeanne all of those years and seeing what that side of her passion is ... You’re one of those kind of people that you’re there and you’re going to do anything that is needed,” she said. “I appreciate that but it’s more than that for me. It’s also someone who is deeply rooted in the community.”
Rittenhouse said Lampe is a “wonderful human being” and is thankful she lives in Clark County and loves the community.
Lampe thanked Rittenhouse and the commissioners.
“(I’m) very emotional because I do love this community and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to help Clark County to accomplish their goals. I don’t do it for the accolades but I’m very, very humble,” she said.
Marta Wojcik
Flax Wilt said she selected Wojcik because she is “truly one of those quite heroes in the community,” crediting her for stepping up within the last year or so in “ways she did not have to.”
“She saw what was happening, probably two or three years ago, within our community and how the Haitian population was being integrated or struggling to integrate within the community,” she said.
Aside from being the executive director of the Westcott House, Flax Wilt said Wojcik does many things to bring joy to the community such as bringing people together around conversation of helping their Haitian neighbors in the community.
“It’s not about what Marta wants, it’s about giving people the platform and the opportunity to weigh in, contribute, collaborate and be part of the solution,” she said. “It’s not the program, it’s not the title, it’s the person who Marta is has made the community and everybody around her better.”
Wojcik said this recognition motivates her to continue moving forward.
“It’s easy to get around the table with like-minded people and come up with solutions, but it’s really hard to get together with people who disagree with you,” she said.
Deborah Woods
Patterson said he has worked with Woods in several venues, such as with Sisters of Prevention and during COVID-19 when she was helping to schedule vaccinations.
Sisters of Prevention ensures women have breast cancer screenings and mammograms, and Woods was behind the scenes doing registrations and the “hard work, the daily work,” Patterson said.
During the pandemic, she was answering phones and helping to schedule people to get vaccinated, especially people of color.
“Behind successful projects and endeavors there’s always someone behind the scenes that’s doing the work. The day-to-day work that if that doesn’t get done, the project falls apart,” he said.
Woods thanked Patterson for the award.
“With everything I do, she’s my right-hand person ... She does the work,” Woods’ sister, Patty, said about her. “I thank you guys for recognizing her.”
About the Author
