Over the seven years I’ve been at The Citizen (sister paper to the Oxford Leader), I have had the honor of meeting many incredible people who give back to their community in many different ways. And every year around this time, those same people get talked about for prestigious community awards.
Not only is The Citizen seeking nominations for our Citizen of the Year award, but the Brandon School District has opened nominations for the Ed and Diane Donaldson Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame.
Getting to be part of these events is one of my favorite parts of my job. We present The Citizen of the Year at Septemberfest, and the Distinguished Alumni are honored with a ceremony the week of homecoming, so they kick off the school year with tons of community pride and involvement.

Picking someone for The Citizen of the Year award is always the easiest and more difficult part. It’s easy because the people who are nominated are incredible community members who truly know what it means to be a ‘citizen’ of the Brandon/Ortonville area. The difficult part is we can only pick one person to receive the award, as so many people are deserving.
This year we will honor our 24th Citizen of the Year. When I look through the past names on the plaques in our office, I see people who continued to be involved for their whole lives, or still are. People like Janice and Ronald Turnbull, Laone Trese, Sue Howard, Dean Salley, Robin Loughlin, Lois Robbins, Arnold and Mary Alice Seelbinder, Bob McArthur, Fran Hotchkiss, Fred Waybrandt and many more.
Every year we also write a story about the Citizen of the Year and their involvement in the community, and every year we ask why they continue to do what they do. The answer is almost always the same: They love the community and want to make it a better place in whatever way they can.
Likewise, every year I attend the Ed and Diane Donaldson Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame presentation ceremony. People who are honored with a spot on the wall are nominated for rising to the highest levels of their profession or organization, significant accomplishments within their area of expertise, rising to the highest level of public service, holding a position of great prestige or notoriety beyond the community, or specific and significant accomplishments during their service within the community.
I’ve watched people I’ve worked with for years be honored as distinguished alumni, people like Ron Sutton, Justin Quisenberry, Clark and Lori Cook, Fran Hotchkiss, Lt. Greg Glover, Dennis Hoffman and many more. When I talk to the honorees about what the award means to them, they talk about the community they grew up in, the teachers, and the ways Brandon and Ortonville have influenced who they are today.
One of the best parts is seeing the impact that these people have on others, which is one of the reasons these awards are so important. They do all of their work with no expectations of recognition, but they are well deserved. And in the case of the distinguished alumni, they serve as an example of how far a student from Ortonville can go and all they can accomplish.
To nominate someone for The Citizen of the Year, email a nomination letter to citnews@citnewspaper.com. To nominate someone for the Ed and Diane Donaldson Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame, check out brandonschooldistrict.org.