Volunteer surprised by volunteer award

As Brian Quirk met with New Horizons-Chamber’s Jason Speltz and Theresa Rasmussen Monday morning, he noticed more and more cars pulling into the New Hampton Municipal Light Plant parking lot.
And then he saw one of the Light Plant Board members, Grant Anderson, emerge from a car.
“I’m thinking, ‘Uh-oh, what did I do wrong now?’ I mean they totally surprised me,” Quirk said. “I had no idea what was going on. I thought we were just meeting to talk about some upcoming events they needed some help with.”
That was the ruse Speltz and Rasmussen used, but the reality is they just wanted to make sure the Light Plant general manager was in his office so they could present him with the chamber’s annual Volunteer of the Year Award.
“Brian’s just one of those guys who goes above and beyond not only for us as a chamber but for our entire community,” said Speltz, the director of New Horizons-Chamber. “He’s very deserving. When we need help, he always answer the call — even if it’s lugging speakers on top of Schueth Ace Hardware in the rain, which he did for us on one of the Classic Car Nights last summer.”
Quirk’s list of volunteer activities is almost endless.
He’s a member of the Rotary Club, and the commander of the American Legion post in New Hampton, and he’s worked on a variety of events and causes — including the Wooden Wonderland Playground, the Garnant Park renovation, RAGRAI, the new softball dugouts at RAGBRAI, the TRIBE Trail and the Little Light of Mine holiday project.
 
For more of this article, see Friday's Tribune.

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