Salem volunteers will be honored Sunday for organizing free music performances, helping neighbors prepare for emergencies and keeping local parks in shape. The city of Salem’s annual award ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 20, will celebrate 15 award recipients at the Loucks Auditorium at the Salem Public Library. The event will be at 2 p.m.  Recipients will get to walk a red carpet before getting their awards and enjoy a reception where Sprague High School’s string quartet will perform.  The awards spotlight people doing standout work for the city. This includes people who’ve volunteered countless hours, or years, with the city, those who promote and improve Salem and educators, business owners or service workers helping the community. This year, 3,616 people volunteered 158,716 hours with the city, according to numbers in a press release. Salem Reporter previously reported that last year 5,401 people spent 149,000 hours volunteering with the city.  Although the number of volunteers decreased, this year’s volunteer cohort contributed almost 10,000 more hours compared to 2023.  “Without volunteer support, reaching areas of need would be near impossible with our current staffing levels,” Amanda Sitter, the city’s volunteer coordinator for parks and recreation, said in a press release. “Volunteers bring togetherness, and the community involvement is just as important for our staff as for them.”  For people interested in watching the ceremony, it will stream on Capital Community Media at 2:55 p.m. Sunday on channel 21.  Recipients were selected through a community nomination process by the Salem City Council and city boards and commissions, in addition to several awards selected by the mayor. The city released the names of winners Thursday. Salem Reporter will publish more information about each winner following the ceremony. Award recipients: Al Loucks Business – Government Partnership Award – RiverCity Rock Star Academy Distinguished Project Award – Canine Corps Outstanding City Advisory Group Volunteer Award – Carlee Wright of Press Play Salem Outstanding Neighbor Award – Fairmount Emergency Readiness Team (FERT) Outstanding Neighbor Award – Seleste Liyanage Salem Spirit Award – Brian Hart Salem Spirit Award – Make Music Salem Vern Miller Award – Linda Bierly Lisa Letney Award – Laura Crofoot At Your Service Award – James Callaway At Your Service Award – Larry Eshelman Mayor’s Youth Achievement Award – Delia Olmos-Garcia Mayor’s Merit Award – Brian Sund Mayor’s Merit Award – Salem Kawagoe Sister City Organization Richard Swyers Public Works Employee Award – Luke Westphal Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected]. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post On Sunday, Salem volunteers are getting awards for time spent giving back to community appeared first on Salem Reporter.