Olympia Branch Service Award

ABOUT THE AWARD

For service to our Olympia Branch above the call of duty. The Mountaineers Olympia Branch Service Award consists of two plaques, one large plaque listing all recipients with the new name added each year, and a small individual plaque. Each plaque has the recipient's name engraved on it. Recipients also receive a service award pin.

HOW TO OBTAIN

A committee comprised of the three most recent service award recipients chooses the next award recipient (from nominations submitted to the committee from fellow Olympia Branch members). Each award recipient serves a term of three years. The first year, the award recipient becomes the chair of the Service Award Committee. 

Current Recipient

Dixie Havlak

Dixie has been a club member since 1984. She participates in Backpacking, Hiking, Global Adventures, Alpine Scrambling, Sea Kayaking, Snowshoeing, Stewardship, Urban Adventures, and Youth Activities

Throughout her membership, Dixie has participated, led, and taught with true spirit and enthusiasm. She is an exceptional and valuable ambassador for our organization, and she is always organized and prepared. She consistently imparts great knowledge and experience, fostering highly supportive learning experiences in activities and programs.

Over the past several years, Dixie has received both the Super Volunteer badge and the “10-Plus” Trip Key Leader badge, and the Seattle Program Center awarded this volunteer the Leadership in Youth Education Award.

Dixie is the driving force of Olympia's Youth Programs. In the past, she had been managing the Olympia Mountaineers partnership with Big Brothers / Big Sisters. When that partnership fell into disuse, she re-directed her energy and developed a relationship with the newly relocated Olympia Hands-On Children’s' Museum.

Dixie worked with the Seattle Program Center staff to build Olympia's current youth programs.  Her success was recognized by the Children’s' Museum, naming the Olympia Mountaineers their Partner of the Year. With the help of others, she encouraged the creation of a family outing activity in the branch. More recently, Dixie pushed for adding staff support for Youth Programs in Olympia, resulting in a part time position funded and filled as of this spring. This summer our branch hosted its first very successful youth summer camp.

Dixie has been the vision, drive, and creative force behind all this and has recruited a supporting cast of volunteers as well as funding to make it all work. While building Youth Programs has been a Board level priority for a number of years, most of the focus has been in Seattle with donor-funded programs run by paid Program Center staff.  This volunteer stands out for delivering a quality Youth Program at the branch level, that is primarily driven by volunteers.

In addition to all of this, Dixie has also been a hike leader and developed and presented the much needed and well received Nutrition module for our Wilderness Skills and Backpacking courses for many years. Congratulations to Dixie Havlak, the 2018 Olympia Branch Service Award recipient! 

Award Recipients