The Patrick County High School Student Government Association honored two PCHS alumnae Thursday with the annual Distinguished Patrick Countian and Outstanding Community Service awards.
Sally Ann Terry Rodgers received this year’s Distinguished Patrick Countian award, selected from a total of four candidates by the following SGA members: Cassidy Largen, president; Lexy Carico, vice-president; Jessica Bryant, secretary; Allison Eames, reporter; Ashton Young, treasurer; and Logan Morrison, historian.
The Distinguished Patrick Countian awards go to PCHS graduates who have contributed to the community through their work with nonprofit organizations, are deemed successful in their career fields, and have demonstrated that they are positive role models. This is the award’s 42nd year.
Rodgers retired from a 43-year career in education where she spent 25 years in the Henry County School System and 18 in Patrick County. She served as a teacher at both PCHS and Patrick Springs elementary, assistant principal for instruction and secondary supervisor at PCHS, and Patrick County’s director of instruction before becoming principal at Sanville Elementary School.
The SGA committee describes Rodgers as “a resident and alumni of Patrick County who contributed unselfishly to the improvement of the youth through education, extracurricular activities, and community involvement in our great county.”
Past Distinguished Patrick Countian recipients include Judge John Dillard Hooker, Nannie Ruth Cooper Terry, Algie Spencer, Annie Hylton, Winifred Roberson, Dr. Stewart Roberson, Bill Pons, Ella Sue Joyce, Joseph H. Vipperman Jr., and Ronald D. Haley.
Nancy Lindsey, who retired December 31, 2016, after 40-plus years at The Enterprise newspaper, received the Outstanding Community Service award, having also been selected from the pool of four candidates.
Recipients of this award — chosen by the above-mentioned SGA students — are selected for their contributions to the community through volunteer work and service, for demonstrating their positive influence and serving as a role model.
Lindsey was nominated by her sister-in-law Mary Lee Mitchell. “The thing about Nancy I didn’t understand — back when Jimmy and I first got married – is why doesn’t she go somewhere with her talent where she could make so much more money?” Mitchell said. “She just loves Patrick County. She loves the land, she loves the people, and they love her.”
Past recipients of the Outstanding Community Service Award include Clyde Crissman, D. Philip Plaster, Dr. Richard Cole, and Thomas Rakes. The service award was instituted in 1993.
At Thursday’s award ceremony, SGA members thanked the audience for joining them for the ceremony of recognition, and thanked the recipients for their “compassion, integrity, and loyalty as representatives of those ideals that Patrick County High School strives to achieve.”
