DAR honors community volunteers
Mary Ann McDonald received the Spirit of the Daughters Award for compassion from the Jonas Babcock chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Saturday in a ceremony at the Sons of Norway.
The chapter has held this ceremony, “Celebrating the Excellence of the Human Spirit,” for 10 years.
Volunteerism, said Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession, who helped distribute awards at the event, is “not only a commitment to the community, it’s a commitment to others.”
McDonald has worked as a switchboard operator at Gonzaga University for nearly 25 years and still has found the time to volunteer since the age of 16.
As a certified nursing assistant, she has worked with hospice and AIDS patients. McDonald has helped set up a library and day care for a church in California and has gone on mission trips to Alaska, Idaho and California.
She’s helped stray animals find homes when they are found on the GU campus and has helped priests with medical problems.
She isn’t involved with any particular volunteer group; she just does it.
“I’ve done it on my own for years,” she said before she received her award.
One of her pet causes is helping those with disabilities, since she has had more than 54 surgeries and has suffered numerous medical problems over the years.
“I felt a real calling to help people who have basically been ignored by society,” McDonald said.
She is very happy to have received this recognition by the DAR and hopes that her work will inspire others to volunteer as well.
“We have to reach out,” she said.
The organization recognized other members of the community with awards for volunteerism, patriotism and leadership.
The DAR honored Lt. Gary Smith of the Spokane Sheriff’s Office with the Spirit of the Daughters Award for Patriotism and Leadership. He received this award for his work with the new Spokane Law Enforcement Memorial that will be dedicated next month to remember officers who have died in the line of duty. There will be 290 names on the memorial.
Smith helped raise more than $100,000 for the project over a period of five years.
Karen Curran of Clarkston received the Spirit of the Daughters Award for Genealogical Research and Family Preservation for her work researching and recording information about fallen law enforcement officers.
Many families of those officers now have new information about their loved ones because of Curran’s research.
The final Spirit of the Daughters Award was bestowed upon Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich for his work with law enforcement and the community in general. Knezovich also helped distribute the awards to the winners at the ceremony.