ZANESVILLE – Leaders from Mount Vernon and four surrounding communities received honors Wednesday night at the Muskingum Valley Council Boy Scouts of America 2020 Good Turn Awards.
Recognizing those who “do a good turn daily” — a scouting motto since 1910 — the Good Turn Awards are bestowed on those who may not be directly involved with scouting, event chairman Alan Hurst said.
“These awards (are) presented to servant leaders who have contributed in their own way, on a continuing basis, in the spirit of ‘doing a good turn,’” Hurst said in a press release. “These people have been making a difference with their time and talents, over a period of years, to improve the neighborhoods where they live.”
The group will make a $250 donation on behalf of each winner to the charity of his or her choice.
Input from other leaders, businesspeople and volunteer organizations helps determine the nominees, the release said. The awards are given “without regard to age, gender or association with scouting.”
In a virtual ceremony consisting of recorded interviews, recipient Randy Metler, an Eagle Scout residing in Mount Vernon since 1988, recounted the role that scouting and service has played in his life. Raised by a single father, Metler noted that he and his two brothers all had to help one another.
“We learned how to take care of family also; and then out of that, we took care of the neighbors, of course,” he said. “Later, when we went to schools, we did a lot of community projects with the schools. And then, like I said, we landed in scouts.”
Metler drew recognition for community projects including a recycling program he launched in 1992, and a book sale and book recycling effort he spearheaded in 2003. The book program takes unsold books from library sales — which are normally discarded — and either sells them or recycles them into cardboard or chipboard.
“So we salvage a million tons of paper, probably, a year,” he said. “We love doing it.”
Metler has designated his donation to go to the Muskingum Valley Council Boy Scouts of America.
The list of other honorees and their charities are as follows: Jamie Trout of Zanesville, Eastside Community Ministries; the Honorable John Triplett of Marietta, the Ely Chapman Education Foundation; John Harmon of Cambridge, The Living Word Outdoor Drama; and Steve Lonsinger of Coshocton, the Coshocton United Way.
Event sponsors included the Mount Vernon News, WHIZ Media Group, Gentry and Associates, and Ohio Stave. A complete list of sponsors can be viewed at muskingumvalleycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/compressed-2020-Good-Turn-Awards-program-compressed.pdf.
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