Rita Rollin is Main Street's top volunteer

Main Street Welling­ton couldn’t sur­vive with­out vol­un­teers, so they’re lucky to have some­one like Rita Rollin they can count on.

Rollin was named the 2011 Patri­cia J. Lind­ley Vol­un­teer of the Year at Main Street’s annual meet­ing on Thursday.

Patti Young, a Main Street mem­ber and friend of Rollin, pre­sented her with the award.

“There’s no one that deserves it more than Rita,” Young said.

Young said she sought out Rollin to help Main Street with var­i­ous events in town. She knew Rollin vol­un­teered a lot in Hunt­ing­ton, so thought she would be great for Welling­ton as well.

Young knew Rollin’s work was excel­lent, because she helped with open houses at Welling­ton Imple­ment, Young’s com­pany, for years.

“She would help with the food at our open houses,” Young said.

Young said she never knew Rollin would con­tinue to vol­un­teer in Welling­ton. Rollin has now been pitch­ing in with events for the past nine years.

“You never told me to stop,” Rollin told Young.

Rollin, who lives in Hunt­ing­ton and was born and raised in the area, said she enjoys the oppor­tu­nity to vol­un­teer in Wellington.

“I like work­ing with the peo­ple and the vol­un­teers,” she said. “It’s fun being able to tell other peo­ple about the area.”

Though she helps with many events through­out the year, she said her favorite events are the Cheese Fes­ti­val and the Gazebo Gar­den Walk.

Rollin said she couldn’t do every­thing she does alone. She said Vil­lage Mar­ket helps out greatly with the food, and East of Chicago lets them refrig­er­ate food at the var­i­ous events.

Rollin said she was sur­prised to win the award, because there are plenty of oth­ers who work tirelessly.

How­ever, Young said it was a no-brainer to give her the award.

“She’s out­stand­ing and does a great job,” Young said. “No mat­ter what you throw at her, whether it’s casual or fancy, she does a won­der­ful job.”

Rollin, who is a farmer at Dovin Dairy Farm, said she wishes more peo­ple would vol­un­teer. She said she doesn’t plan on stopping.

“When I’m not farm­ing, I’m feed­ing peo­ple,” she said. “Even if (Patti) told me to stop, I wouldn’t.”

Posted by Terra Carlson on Feb 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.