Volunteer of the Year

Minnesota State Sheriff's Association selected Meeker County Sheriff's Office Volunteer Tom Mathies as the 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award Winner. Mathies actually has a lifetime of service to his communities from serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in 1966-1967, to 25 years on the Eden Valley Fire Department and Rescue Squad, and various positions at his local church.

This award is not only for Tom's years of volunteer service in the Meeker County Jail in crisis counseling, ministering, and support group meetings, it goes well beyond Meeker County to seven different counties, three different prisons, and covers nearly 20 years of service in programs such as (incarcerated) Residents Encounter Christ (REC) program, starting the Let's Talk support group in Morrison County, and helping with many other programs.  Through his many years of service to multiple correctional facilities Tom Mathies has been an instrumental part of influencing many men and women to make positive change and is proud of him for receiving this award in acknowledgement of this.