66th Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Lindsey Mason!

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Lindsey has a Masters Degree in Library Science, that being said, there is one word that Lindsey does not have in her vocabulary; that would be “NO!”. When one thinks of Lindsey, two things come to mind ‐ first, she is always upbeat, positive, and smiling. Next, Lindsey seems to be involved in a little bit of everything around this wonderful town of Boyertown! Lindsey has been involved in her community for a very long time. When she was in 7th grade as a Girl Scout, she was a member of the Berks County Museum Patrol. For four years, she and dozens of other Girl Scout teenagers volunteered to provide overnights at the Reading Museum for Brownie Girl Scouts. That group of volunteers was called the “Green Shirts. ”Lindsey went to West Chester University and received her degree in Elementary Education.After college, she joined the Board of Christian Endeavor, located in Gilbertsville, where she planned and executed many mission trips and was active in her church. She then went back to college to get her Master’s Degree. Soon after she received her Master’s degree, she became the Director of the Boyertown Community Library. After three years as the Director, she felt she wanted more interaction with children, so she decided to take a job as Head Librarian in the Reading School. Her heart still being with the Boyertown Library, she decided to join the Board of Directors; ultimately becoming the President. Lindsey was instrumental in the formation of the Library Fundraising Committee known as the Page Turners, of which she has been the Chairperson since its inception. Since the committee was formed, they have raised over $13,000 towards library programs through the “Winter Wine Down” wine tasting event and “Par in the Park” disc golf tournament.Last summer when tragedy struck, Lindsey once again took on another community project in memory of Pam Snyder, Preston Dray, and Pam’s unborn daughter after they passed away in a flash flood. The result was “Preston’s Pantry”, a record setting food drive that helped the family and our community to respond by giving and loving. Lindsey played and continues to play an instrumental role in making “Preston’s Pantry” successful. The Boyertown community can be very proud of this project.In addition to all this, Lindsey participates on a Relay for Life team and she is also a loving wife to Corey and a stepmother to four sons.One quote from a selection of the Nominations submitted sums up Lindsey very well: “Even if her life is sometimes chaotic as an elementary school librarian, wife, stepmother and daughter. Lindsey has the biggest heart, and she NEVER hesitates to share her love, time and talents with the people who mean so much to her.”

65th Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Donald Heimbach

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65th Boyertown Citizen of the Year Donald Heimbach has lived his whole life in the Boyertown community and has been described as a model citizen. For nearly four decades he operated his own successful contracting business. His solid reputation was built upon the high level of professionalism and high ethical standards he maintained. Mr. Heimbach is a dedicated family person. He and his wife have 4 children and 10 grandchildren. Ten years ago, the Heimbach family suffered a terrible loss, when one of their grandchildren passed away at a young age. In the memory of 4-year old Ally, the Heimbach family has raised thousands of dollars for the Gift of Life charity, allowing research and hope for other organ donor families.

Since 2008, Mr. Heimbach and his wife, Mary Kay, have been key members of the J-Walkers/Relay for Life of Boyertown contingent. During that time, the all-volunteer team has raised more than $250,000 for the American Cancer Society and other causes.

Donnie is also an active member of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, where he serves as a church council member and property committee volunteer. He has also served on one of the church ushering teams for nearly 40 years. He devoted more than 20 years as a youth wrestling coach and mentor, helping to set up and establish the youth wrestling program that is still thriving in Boyertown today.

64th Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Dennis Hafer

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Raised on a farm, Lions Club member Dennis Hafer spoke about living in the small Bally community. He discussed past jobs and organizations where he learned the things that made him the man is is today.

“I’ve done nothing special. I have just been part of organizations that are very special,” Hafer said. “I accept this award on behalf of them.”

Hafer thanked his wife Audrey and received a standing ovation.

In his final comments, to sum up the night, Jim Davidheiser quoted Nelson Mandela, “There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

63th Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Pastor Paul Willman

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When paging through the dozens of nomination forms for Paul Willman as the 2017 Boyertown Area Citizen of the Year, one word continued to pop up: selfless.
“He’s always been the guy who is at somebody’s house fixing their roof or fixing their car or helping a lady with her plumbing,” friend Mark Malizzi said of Willman. “It’s amazing the kind of lives that he’s touched.”
Willman’s decades of contributions to the Boyertown community have been recognized with his selection to receive the Citizen of the Year award, now in its 63rd year. Willman will be honored at an awards gala April 23 at Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

“He is not one to seek out recognition for what he does. He’s a behind-the-scenes kind of man,” said his wife of 42 years, Barbara Willman. “That’s just who he is. If somebody needed help, he did whatever he could to help them out, but it was never to be recognized.”
“Pastor Paul” is a Boyertown area lifer, a native of Earl Township and a graduate of Boyertown High School. As associate pastor at Morningstar Fellowship for over two decades, his work not only touched Boyertown, but far beyond.
Willman, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday Monday, completed mission trips to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, as well as to Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala to construct churches and schools.
Two years ago, however, when returning from one of those mission trips, Willman suffered a stroke. The stroke left him with some physical limitations: He now walks with a cane and speaks very little, but friends say it hasn’t diminished his generosity or his spirit.
“He continues to do things behind the scenes to help the community, even though he can’t do much in public,” said Roger Lehmann, chairman of the awards committee who has known Willman for over 20 years.
“When you look in his eyes, it’s the same guy,” Malizzi said. “It’s the same love and the same compassion.”
Malizzi, who was named Boyertown Citizen of the Year last year, recalled times that Willman appeared in Malizzi’s office at Fred Beans Ford in Boyertown covered in grease from fixing a car for somebody who couldn’t afford to take it to a mechanic.
“When it comes to what he’s done for the community, but behind the scenes, I’m not even in his league,” Malizzi said. “He’s touched so many lives that he really is deserving of this.”

62nd Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Mark Malizzi

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For years, Mark Malizzi has given his time and talents to the Boyertown community, operating in the background, never one to seek recognition for his efforts.

“The driving factor is that for years I’ve heard people have time to complain about how bad things are in the community,” Malizzi said. “If we don’t step up to the needs in the community, it’s never going to change.”
Despite his modesty, Malizzi’s charitable work has not gone unnoticed. He has been selected as the Boyertown Area 2016 Citizen of the Year, and he’ll be the special guest at the 62nd annual awards event on April 9 at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.
“Mark tries to do a lot of things behind the scenes and doesn’t ask for recognition,” said Roger Lehmann, chairman of the awards committee. “I think that embodies what the citizen of the year is all about in that it typically is driven by people who try to help the community out behind the scenes.”
Malizzi said he is humbled by the honor.
“There’s so many people through our community that do great work to help people,” he said. “And for me to even be nominated, let alone chosen, it really touches my heart very deeply that apparently the things we’re doing in the community are making that much of a difference.”
Malizzi, 51, of Douglassville, founded Thunder Outreach Ministries with his wife of 31 years, Lisa. The ministry, which has about 20 volunteers, helped to revitalize the exterior of the Boyertown Inn at North Reading and East Philadelphia avenues.
The historic building is a mainstay of Boyertown’s downtown, and Malizzi’s group helped paint the exterior and repair some of the front columns.
“As people come into town, it makes them smile, it brings them back to an 1800s sort of feel,” Malizzi said of the building.
“He (Malizzi) put a lot of personal time and effort into it and coordinated the volunteer efforts of all the people who assisted in it,” Lehmann said.
“It certainly is a focal point of the community right there at the intersection, and it came out awesome. He did an awesome job.”
Malizzi also is known in the community through his job as service director at Fred Beans Ford of Boyertown.
His work with Thunder Outreach includes partnerships with the Boyertown Salvation Army as well as numerous other nonprofit organizations throughout Berks County. And he is chaplain for Boyertown Area Fire & Rescue.
“Interacting and working with them is important to me,” Malizzi said of the emergency crews.
Despite the many hats that Malizzi wears, and the many projects he has participated in, Malizzi has a much simpler outlook on what drives him to keep working in the community.
“If I go down in history as being one thing, I just want to be known as somebody who cared,” he said.

61st Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Lori Carnes !

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“We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give.”

Winston Churchill uttered these words more than fifty years ago, but this quote is one that this year’s Boyertown Citizen of the Year lives by. Lori Carnes makes her life by giving.
Indeed, one look at her calendar tells you much of what you need to know about Carnes. She’s an incredibly busy woman, and while few people can keep up with her, she will tell you it’s all in a day’s work and part of her unwavering commitment to the Boyertown community.
“I love Boyertown,” Carnes says. “It’s a great place to live, work and raise a family, and it has great energy and enthusiasm. The enthusiasm is contagious.”

60th Boyertown “Citizen of the Year” Winner is Shawn Barndt

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Boyertown’s 60th Citizen of the Year award recipient has been announced.
Shawn Barndt, Executive Director for Chestnut Knoll, has been nominated as Citizen of the Year after an outpouring of support and nominations as a result of her years of dedication to Alzheimer and Dementia patients and her devotion to the community.

59th Boyertown Citizen of the Year winner is Roger Lehmann

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It takes commitment and determination to accomplish great things, and while one person can’t do it alone-that one person can set the gears in the motion.

Roger Lehmann has been nominated by the community as this year’s Citizen of the Year for his steadfast commitment to the Boyertown area.

‘I don’t do what I do for any kind of reward,’ said Lehmann, stating that he likes to work behind the scenes. ‘How many communities have Citizens of the Year? The award is more than one person-one person can’t do much. It takes a community.’

Lehmann is currently the President for the Board of the Directors of the Boyertown Lions Community Ambulance Service, Inc. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Boyertown Historical Society and the Boyertown Area Fire and Rescue Board. Most recently, a great deal of his time has been devoted to Fenstermacher Exercise Campus project at the Boyertown Community Park and to the Colebrookdale Railroad Tourist Project.’ Boyertown is a community that bands together and accomplishes terrific things. I can’t do what I do without the community’s reciprocal support. ‘In a continued effort to support his community, Roger volunteers for several organizations in the area including the Boyertown Lions Club, Building a Better Boyertown, the Oley Valley Fair and the Boyertown Relay For Life J-Walkers team.