Four years ago the Fire Safe Council began giving a "Citizen of the Year" award, in order to recognize outstanding service during the year. This year the award went to Jim Taylor. Our first year's award went to Janice Fast, and our second to Viv Larson; last year's award went to Ron Bowles, who, to our sorrow, passed away this spring. Each of these people is admirable in many ways. They are people whom we, as a community, should celebrate in all times -- and certainly in these difficult ones. These people are alike in many of their admirable qualities, and it is interesting to think about what they share.

Jim, Ron, Viv, and Janice all gave hundreds of hours of their time to the Woodies, the group that fire abates homes and prepares fire wood for people who really need the help. (note: Here, I use the same tense for all in order to simplify.) As part of the Woodies they rake leaves, limb trees, cut brush, take green waste to the transfer station, cut and split wood, and deliver it to the Help Center. They do this on Fridays, when the Woodies work, but also on other days, as needs arise. They are all extremely generous with their time and effort for the good of those who need it, and for our community.

They are all great to work with and incredibly responsible. They do what they say they will, and they do it well. If they can't, they'll ask for help. They can all give useful advice without needing to control. They are considerate of others, and pay close attention to other's safety and wellbeing as much as their own. They are all good natured about the work, and they are all funny. They all have a great sense of humor, laugh easily and often, and make friendly banter and wit a part of the work. As you can guess, the work gets a lot easier when everyone is laughing, and they are all good at creating laughter.

One other thing they all share is that they love dogs. I am not sure why it worked out that way, but irrelevant coincidence or meaningful characteristic, they do love dogs.

As I noted earlier, Ron passed away this spring, but Janice, Viv, and Jim are all very active, along with the rest of the Woodies, clearing property, splitting wood, making jokes.

There are many volunteer organizations on the hill, and I know there are lots of people like these four out there giving their time and effort towards some worthy community goal. I attended the fund raiser for Mountain Disaster Preparedness recently and marveled at how much time and effort goes into the great work they do and into their fundraiser events. . I know that if we have an earthquake that isolates us from the rest of the world, a lot of people are going to be helped by Veronica Alt, Dick Goldberg, and many others who spend time preparing for the event. And when communication breaks down, as it always seems to do in disasters, people like Bill Baker and other skilled radio operators are going to provide an essential service.

We have lots of terrific people around here. We're fortunate.