A popular tradition in the greater Boyertown region will continue this year, as the 60th Annual Boyertown Area Citizen of the Year awards banquet takes center-stage on Saturday, May 31.
The event is set for the Friendship Hook and Ladder Fire Company banquet hall, Third and Warwick streets, Boyertown. Doors will open at 5:00 pm, and the banquet will begin at 6:00 pm.
The prestigious top honor of the evening will go to Shawn Barndt, the Executive Director of the Chestnut Knoll Personal Care and Memory Care facility, Boyertown.
A Boyertown Area High School and Kutztown University graduate, Barndt first worked in Chestnut Knoll’s Memory Care unit and was eventually named Executive Director.
Others to be honored at the May 31 event:
Dan Kershetsky will receive the ‘Educator of the Year’ award. A long-time teacher and music educator in the Boyertown Area School District, Kershetsky will be retiring this year after a career that spanned 33 years.
Charles Ritschard Sr., a volunteer firefighter with the Friendship Hook and Ladder company in Boyertown, has been named the ‘Firefighter of the Year.’ Ritschard has spent more than 30 years in the volunteer fire service arena, including stints with the Upper Pottsgrove Fire Company and the Keystone Fire Company, Boyertown.
Danielle Croner will receive the ‘Senior Student of the Year’ award. She is active in the Boyertown Area High School student government segment, was the recent Homecoming Queen and is a member of National Honor Society. Croner will attend Pepperdine University, California, in the fall.
The ‘Citizen’ program is hosted by the Boyertown Lions Club, the Boyertown Rotary Club and Building A Better Boyertown.
This year’s event represents a changing of the guard, so to speak, as long-time organizers Boyertown Jaycees and Berks-Mont Newspapers have opted to no longer be affiliated with the storied program (which originated in 1954).
Tickets are available at: Building A Better Boyertown offices, 3 East Philadelphia Avenue, Boyertown; Robin Zimmers Pets store, 51 East Philadelphia Avenue, Boyertown; offices of Drs. Reitnauer and Tribbett, 704 East Philadelphia Avenue, Boyertown.
For additional information, persons can phone 484-706-3262.
Corporate and organizational sponsors of the 2014 ‘Boyertown Citizen’ event include the following: M&T Bank, Berks-Mont Business Association, Berks Country/Reading Eagle, Boyertown Area Times, The Mercury, Campbell Fittings Inc., National Penn Bank, Everything Printing, Winner’s Circle Awards, All County and Assoc., Dierolf Water, Saville’s Diner, Drs. Reitnauer/Tribbett, Ott Funeral Home and Kring’s Hearth & Home.
Submitted by organizers of Citizen of the Year
