A pair of longtime volunteers are the Boardman Chamber of Commerce’s citizens of the year.
Husband and wife Paul and Ruth Beagle received the recognition Friday night, March 8, during the chamber’s 34th annual Distinguished Citizens Awards Banquet.
“See a need, fill it,” said Paul Beagle, a retired sixth grade teacher who, along with Ruth, volunteers all around town, including at the Boardman Food Pantry, their church and youth sporting events.
“Paul and Ruth are some of the most generous and caring people I know,” said nominator Erika Lasater in the announcement video. “They do a lot of things behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t know about. They’re always looking for ways to give back and support our community.”
After the banquet ended, the Beagles reflected on the honor.
“I was so surprised,” Ruth said. “I wasn’t going for an award. Ever!”
“We never did it for recognition,” Paul said. “We just wanted to remain anonymous because people need help and we can help them without them knowing that we helped ’em. The theme of this whole evening was people helping people in need, and we’ve been doing it for 30 years. So, yeah, the cat’s out of the bag.”
“We couldn’t have gotten this without help of other people,” Ruth added.
The banquet at the Port of Morrow Riverfront Center also raised about $10,000 to fund scholarships for Riverside High School seniors honored several more Boardman residents for their dedication to the community.
The money came from ticket sales for the event, an auction on donated baskets filled with goods and buy-in-based games with prizes for winning attendees.
Award winners were announced via a prerecorded video showing when they found out they’d won and cut with interviews from the winners’ nominators. Then, winners received flowers and a physical award engraved with their names, and had a chance to say a few words.
Maria and Dave Richards received the Pioneers of the Year, which is for residents who have lived in the community for at least 40 years.
“We’ve seen the town grow, we’ve seen our children grow, our grandchildren grow, and now our great-grandchildren are here, too, so it’s been kind of nice,” Maria said at the banquet. “It’s a nice community.”
“It’s a pretty big honor,” Dave said in the award video.
• Monserrat Pacheco, an 18-year-old senior at Riverside High School, received the youth citizen award. She is preparing to study biology in the fall at Oregon State University.
As part of her award, she received a $1,000 scholarship from the Boardman Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has given more than $50,000 in scholarships during the past five years, according to Anna Browne, vice president of the chamber’s board of directors.
Browne, a former teacher, also mentioned research by the University of Kansas that found when low- and middle-income students saved money specifically for college (between $1 and $500) they were more than three times likelier to enroll, and four times likelier to graduate, than students with no savings.
Pacheco said during her acceptance the money will help cover the cost of her college education.
“It’s kind of a surprise to see how teachers or staff members noticed me throughout the years when I really don’t like to be in the spotlight as much,” Pacheco said. “I hope this pushes other people to go out and do stuff that they normally don’t do and, I guess, be a teenager and have fun but also share with your community.”
• Stephanie Simpson, math teacher at Riverside High School, received the award for educator of the year.
Simpson is in her sixth year with the school. She’s a self-described “yes woman” who will get involved with any event or program that supports the students. She helps out at sports games, at prom and at every event in between.
“My students mean everything,” Simpson said. “I would do anything and everything for them.”
She stepped into the role of a senior advisor this school year, and said it’s been rewarding to offer insight and advice to students as they contemplate their futures.
“I just am really proud that I can support (my students) on their journey to wherever it may be,” Simpson said.
Pacheco said Simpson is her favorite teacher, so winning the youth citizen award the same year as Simpson won recognition for her teacher was especially meaningful.
“I’m really glad I got it this year,” Pacheco said. “She’s taught me math since my freshman year. I’m really glad that we both got the award the same year.”
Simpson said she sees a lot of herself in Pacheco.
“She’s very competitive, she wants the 110%, not the 100%,” Simpson said. “I really, really know that she’ll go anywhere and everywhere. She’s going to be very successful in life and I really wish her the best with everything.”
• Deena Gallaway, an emergency responder, won the Frontline Worker of the Year Award. She has been a frontline worker for about 10 years and volunteers for the Boardman Fire Rescue District. She thanked everyone for the recognition.
• Leslie Pierson, a real estate agent with Windermere Real Estate, received the Business Person of the Year Award. During her speech, she said, “It is a sincere privilege for me to help people find homes and invest in their futures, so thank you for that opportunity.”
• Tillamook, the dairy manufacturing company, was the business of the year. Michael Graham, director of plant operations at the Boardman location, accepted the award alongside a few coworkers.
“As much as I love our products, it’s really the people that make our products great,” he said. “I just want to thank the employees and I want to thank Boardman.”
Boardman chamber declares success
“I think it went amazing,” said Torrie Griggs, the chamber’s CEO, at the end of the night. “I think we made a little over $10,000 tonight, so we’re just super excited to support our Riverside seniors with the Boardman chamber scholarship program. It’s exciting to be able to provide those scholarships to our students.”
It took about three months to prepare for the nearly three-and-a-half-hour event, complete with awards, baskets, prizes, an auction, food by GG’s Smokehouse Catering by Amber and drinks by Destination Bartending.
The work to plan and execute the event was mostly done by the three members of the chamber staff, with the award videos produced by Mario Sepulveda Films.
“I just love our community and I love everything we have and our support for the Boardman Chamber of Commerce,” Griggs said. “I just love that we can continue to provide and give back to our community and make this a great place to live, work and play.”
