Parks & Recreation

Volunteers Spotlight

Mr. & Mrs. Bouts
The Bouts have been involved in our program since 1997 as their son Bruce started in our program.   Mr. Bouts has been a coach for many different sports and as well as chaperoned for competitions over the years.  He has been chairman of our Local Special Olympics committee and the fundraising chairperson.  Mrs. Bouts was secretary for two years for our committee. Mrs. Bouts is also a strong advocate for the special needs community in raising awareness for group homes in our county.     At many of our social events, you can see them both lending a hand where needed.  Their daughter and son in law have also donated to our program, financially and with equipment  and it has been greatly appreciated.   We take great pleasure in nominating this humble family for their years of service to our program, we are blessed to have them  on board. 

Bill Dodd
Mr. Dodd has worked tirelessly with several museums to preserve history in many different areas. He not only gives tours and makes repairs but has also donated artifacts from his personal collections and visits schools with a traveling display since funding for field trips has been cut for many schools. His selfless sacrifices of time, money and energy are a testament to his passion to educate the future about the past.

Mr. & Mrs. Greene
John and Nicolette Greene are a husband and wife team who have been coaching in the Henry County Parks and Recreation youth basketball program for the past 6 seasons. They have three children in the program and coach all three teams, each in a different age group. They spend six hours every week practicing with their teams, not to mention spending their entire Saturday at the gym coaching the games. They are dedicated to their teams for the four months the basketball season is in session. They strive to instill sportsmanship in their athletes, while teaching them how to have fun while being competitive. They are well respected by the kids, their parents, other coaching peers, referees, and the entire athletic staff at HCPRD. They are a dynamic duo who is passionate about the game and each of their coaching styles and personalities compliments each other in such a way that parents can only hope their child will get on the “Greene team.”

Bonnie Hunt
Encourager, Teacher, Motivator, Organizer, Friend would be just a few of the adjectives to describe Bonnie Hunt. She has been involved with our program for over 15 years, and we are so excited to be honoring her today. She is our Special Olympics Tennis Coach, and has grown the program over the last two years from 3 athletes to over 15 athletes and numerous unified partners under her leadership. She has also solicited funds to grow our program from local business, and supporters. Bonnie is one person that you would always want on your team, she puts the athletes first and can always be seen with her camera catching the smiles of her tennis players. Bonnie always helps out at all of our socials through our department, and she never hesitates to ask what else she can do. Every department needs a Coach Bonnie, and we are so blessed to have her on our team.

Jim and Nelda Hagelthorn
The Hagelthorn Family has been involved with our Special Olympics program for the last 10 years, heir daughter Brittany is an athlete in our program, and their daughter Alison works with the Therapeutic Division.  So, one could say it is “All in the Family” Jim and Nelda Hagelthorn, are jewels in our program.  Nelda has stepped up and taken on the task of the Fundraising Coordinator, and has done an outstanding job, and we wanted to say THANK YOU!  Nelda also helps at each competition, making lunches, chaperoning in the hotels, and or just rounding up our athletes at the end of a long day. Coach Jim is a huge support to our program through coaching, and being a unified partner in bowling, and tennis. Jim is the strength of his family, and you can see it every time he walks onto the field with our athletes, his smiles, and encouragement lifts the spirits of so many.  Every agency needs a Hagelthorn Family, with their huge smiles, and love that they bring to our athletes, and to others that they come across.  Henry County Parks and Recreation is honored to recognize Jim and Nelda Hagelthorn as our United Way Volunteers of the Year.

Ms. Julie Wethington
For the past 10 years, Julie Wethington has been volunteering her time to help organize the twenty plus teams each season that play out of Richard Craig Park.  She helps assign teams to courts for practices and games.  This past year there were approximately 3500 players that played in seven different leagues throughout the year, so organizing the 16 tennis courts takes a great deal of time all year long.  As a tennis player herself, Ms. Wethington is determined to help all tennis programs in the continuation of growth in Henry County. 

Mr. Tim Peek
From the very first day that Tim began bringing his son, who is also named Tim, to our WHEELCHAIR SPORTS program he right away began asking “What can I do to help?” and continually says “Just let me know if you need anything.” Now, while these words are commonly spoken by many and nowadays has become the COMMON thing to say when one is simply being nice – it is a heart-felt, honest statement from Tim for our adult and youth wheelchair programs. He will do “whatever, whenever” to include doing things without being asked because he simply knows it needs to be done. It has been said a lot about volunteers that “I  wish  I had many more like him/her”, but honestly if there were more volunteers like Tim I wouldn’t have a job – and you know how hard it is to find jobs these days!!! So, it is my honor to nominate Tim Peek as the Henry County Wheelchair Sports program Volunteer of the Year!