The ALIVE Center recognized 26 individuals and five groups for their community service at the third annual President’s Volunteer Service Award reception on Thursday evening.

Those recognized were not only members of the Bowling Green community, but also were either WKU students, students from Warren County High School or adult individuals involved in volunteer organizations.

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All individuals awarded had collectively served 35,863 hours volunteering their time to various organizations, benefiting their community in the previous year.

Leah Ashwill, director of the ALIVE Center, commended all volunteers present for their work.

“The work that you do can not be measured by dollars and cents,” she said. “You can not put a price tag on the ability to impact the lives of others.”

Individual recipients were given a letter from the President of the United States, a certificate and either a gold, silver or bronze pin. Group recipients were also given a certificate, and either a gold, silver or bronze pin. Pin color was determined by the number of volunteer hours that had been earned in the previous year. All awards were given to them by Mayor Wilkerson.

One of the groups recognized was Bike4ALZ. This group of WKU students dedicated 13,608 hours to raising Alzheimer’s Awareness. They biked from Canada to Key West, Fla. and also raised more than $60,000 for Alzheimer’s research. The group of bikers received the Gold Award for their volunteer work toward their cause.

Jake Boswell, a WKU alumni and the night’s Master of Ceremony, remarked that many of the men involved in this group had been in his hall when he was a resident assistant.

“The moment they walked in, I said, “get ready to bike,” because it was all about training,” he said.

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Habitat for Humanity was one of many organizations attending to represent those receiving awards for service in their organization. Habitat itself was also recognizing four individuals who had helped build houses with the organization for several years, completing more than 4,000 service hours each for Habitat for Humanity.

Rodney Goodman, executive director at Habitat for Humanity, was the guest speaker of the night.

“Reflect on what you’ve done, but do it again, and again, and again, and again, until we defeat these issues that we’re dealing with; until our whole community knows that they are loved,” he said.