Don Burrell wins community service award

Thompson Falls resident Don Burrell said he was completely stunned to find out that he had won the 2008 Sanders County Community Service Award.

“I never expected it or anything,” Burrell said. “It is really a surprise.”

Burrell is president of the Thompson Falls Senior Citizens and works behind the scenes. On Tuesday afternoons he calls bingo. He also sets up and cleans up when the seniors and members of the Grange offer Sunday afternoon pinochle. Burrell is also master of the Thompson Falls Grange and is the chaplain for the Montana Grange. He’s a member of the Thompson Falls Baptist Church and is a president of the Men’s Prayer Breakfast group in Thompson Falls. In addition, he helps organize the annual Chicken Jamboree and attends the Men’s Prayer Breakfast group in Trout Creek.

If that list weren’t long enough, Burrell is also past vice president of the Community Harvest Food Bank in Thompson Falls. He helps deliver Meals on Wheels and commodity deliveries to the Noxon and Heron Food Banks. Burrell is also a volunteer driver for the Disabled Veteran’s Administration van and helps individuals who are homebound through the Life Care Network.

Burrell is modest about his achievements.

“This is what God called me to do,” he said. “It isn’t hard to do things like this when you know that you’re helping people.”

If it all sounds like a little too much community service for Burrell’s own good, he agrees.

“Sometimes I really have to juggle my schedule,” he said. “I run around like a chicken with my head cut off.”

Mike Hashisaki, manager of the Sanders County Fair, said the fair committee selected Burrell for his “very valuable contributions to the community and county.”

“This award is given to a person that has given unselfishly to their own community and at times to the entire county,” he said.

According to Hashisaki, the fair commission sends out a letter, usually every two years, to senior centers, chambers of commerce and volunteer organizations in the county requesting nominations. The commission started handing out the Sanders County Community Service Award in about 1993.

Because of the award, Burrell will be the grand marshal in the fair parade and a formal announcement will be made at the fair rodeo, where he and his family will be guests of honor.

This isn’t Burrell’s first shot at grand marshal.

“Last winter, during Christmas on Main Street, I was the grand marshal of that parade too,” he said, adding that it would make him an “old pro” at this.

Burrell explained that his community service work started with his parents. They were both community-minded people, who lived in a small farming community, where it was really important that people stick together and help each other out.

“My parents were active in senior centers,” Burrell said. “And that’s where some of my involvement in senior activities came around.”

Being around and growing up around so many organizations made him want to get involved. Just hearing about an organization got him interested and then he would see what he could do to help, he explained.

Even with so much volunteer work under his belt, Burrell shows absolutely no signs of stopping any time soon.

“I just pray that God keeps me healthy so I can keep going on and doing this,” he said.