New River Valley Leading Lights recently honored 35 community volunteers at a special ceremony held April 30 at the German Club at Virginia Tech.
The New River Valley Leading Lights organization’s mission is to acknowledge and honor volunteers across the New River Valley who are making community changing impacts through volunteerism, culminating in an annual celebratory banquet. Angie Covey, Director of Development at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)—Virginia campus, served as this year’s guest speaker.
This year’s high school nominees included Emily Hall, Geri-len Johnson, Abigale McClure, Rishi Nair and Ian Yu. College nominees included Cole Howard and Abby Touchstone.
Nominees from Montgomery County included Diane Akers, Shirley Akers, Maggie Bassett, Lynn Brammer, Nikki Garland, Trish Knighton, Anne Larsen, Christina Shelor, Melanie Smith, Clara Taylor, and Andrew Walker. The Radford City nominee was Dusty Spence.
Nominees from Floyd County included Linda Ewing, Spencer Ferrell, Tim Mallard, Ken Presser, Tom and Debbie Schaefer, Natalie Thomas, and Jean Woods. Nominees from Giles County included Charlie Herbert and Barbara Vesely. The nominees from Pulaski County were Pamela Edwards, Sue Huff, Krista Lindsey, and Jamie Thompson.
Earl Brown of Montgomery County, Dr. Jonathan Evans of Floyd County, and James (Jim) Lawrence of Montgomery County were nominated in the Lifetime Achievement category.
From the 35 nominees, 11 were chosen as Distinguished Recipients. The 2026 Leading Lights Distinguished Recipients honored included Rishi Nair (High School Award – Robert “Bob” Job III Memorial Award); Ian Yu (High School Award), Cole Howard (College Award); Abby Touchstone (College Award); Linda Ewing (Floyd Community Award); Charlie Herbert (Giles Community Award); Anne Larsen (Montgomery Community Award—Blacksburg Breakfast Lions Club Award); Andrew Walker (Montgomery Community Award—Jim and Lenna Moore Memorial Award); Krista Lindsey (Pulaski Community Award); and Dusty Spence (Radford Community Award).
Earl Brown was named as the distinguished recipient of the German Club Alumni Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
The community, college, and high school Distinguished Recipients receive $500 to direct to a non-profit of their choice, and the Lifetime Achievement recipient receives $1,000 to direct. The nominees’ volunteer efforts include work with area food pantries, Virginia Tech YMCA, community cleanup efforts, and many more.
NRV Leading Lights was established in 2007, prompted by the outpouring of voluntary service after the April 16 events at Virginia Tech. The first Leading Lights Recognition Event was held in April 2009. These annual events highlight the extraordinary compassion of ordinary citizens who united in service to others. To learn more about NRV Leading lights, visit www.leadinglightsnrv.org. NRV Leading Lights will be seeking volunteer nominations at a later date for the 2027 awards.
NRV Leading Lights
