Helping Others
Gail Hunter of Center Township was honored as the Community Ruby Award winner Saturday by Soroptimist International of Butler County.
The award was presented at the group's annual A Time to Bloom luncheon at the Butler Country Club as the Soroptimist chapter celebrates its 65th anniversary.
Two Live Your Dream Awards and the Soroptimist Club Ruby Award were also presented.
“The word Soroptimist means 'best for women' and that is what our volunteer organization strives to achieve,” said Marianne Hill, Soroptimist president.
“We are women at our best, working to help other women and girls to be their best.”
The Community Ruby Award focuses on a woman in the community who has lived the ideal of helping others.
Hunter was instrumental with her husband of more than 50 years, Bob, and daughter, Nancy Hunter Mycka, in the Pioneer Proud Campaign to raise $5.5 million for the new Heaton Learning Commons at Butler County Community College. The family business is the Hunter Truck Sales & Service, headquartered in Butler.
The Fort Knox, Ky., native began caring for the community early in her life when she and Bob moved to Butler County.
As a mother of three children, she served as a Girl Scout leader in the 1970s and was active with the PTO at Moniteau and Butler high schools and as a band parent.
As a member of North Main Street Church of God and First United Methodist Church, Hunter served meals, taught Sunday School and participated in the outreach ministry.
A homemaker, she also was involved in the community through her club work and was named Outstanding Junior of the Year in 1981 by the Junior Women's Club of Butler.
As president of the Butler Garden Club, she worked on countless gardening beautification projects around the county.
She has belonged to the Butler Reading Club for more than 30 years. Her love of reading inspired Hunter to be instrumental in getting a book mobile to serve northern Butler County. In the 1990s, she served on the board and the capital campaign for the Butler Public Library.She and her husband are also patrons of the Butler Little Theatre and Butler County Symphony.The Grove City College alumna initiated several voter registration opportunities for northern Butler County residents.She also volunteered at the Lifesteps' Senior Day Care for many years and, through the garden club, assisted with the senior wheelchair gardens and awning.Carol Landis, Soroptimist treasurer, in presenting the award to the grandmother of seven, said “She is the best wife, mother and Nana anyone could ever want.”Live Your Dream Awards, a program started in 1972, are presented to women facing economic or personal hardships while attempting to make a better life for themselves and their dependents.Cranberry Township resident Krista Rupert received $1,000 with her Live Your Dream Award. Rupert is studying nursing at Butler County Community College.As a new single mother, she also found herself caring for a family member with cancer. She said the experience inspired her to seek a career in the medical field and she wants to become a labor and delivery nurse.“My dream in the nursing field is to benefit as many lives as possible,” she wrote in her application.
The second Live Your Dream Award was presented to April Laughner of Pittsburgh. She received $500.A widow with young children, Laughner is attending the Community College of Allegheny County with the goal of becoming a social worker.In her application, Laughner said she wanted a good life for her children.“The only way I know to make that happen is getting education for a career that will put me in that position,” she wrote.The Soroptimist Ruby Club Award winner was Lisa Rosenbauer, a five-year member. The award honors a club member for service within the group.“Lisa has worn many hats in our club and takes charge of any and all tasks that she is asked to take on,” Hill said.Rosenbauer is the Soroptimist's recording secretary and co-chairwoman of the Angel committee which organizes programs at local care facilities.The Fenelton resident also assists with Michelle's Mission, a program to make blankets for chemotherapy patients, and the Girl Scout committee, which sponsors a troop in Butler.Rosenbauer is wife of Tim and mother of son Cody and daughter Morgan.Born and raised in Butler, she graduated from Butler High School and works at the district judge's office in Butler.The luncheon and basket raffle is one of the major fundraising events of the group. Proceeds benefit programs such as a Place to Lay My Head, which provides beds, bedding, furniture and household items to women in need, and the President's Program, which provides gift cards to assist women veterans.For more information about the service organization, contact Hill at 724-321-1309.
