ONEONTA _ A longtime member of the Lions Club of Oneonta has been given the international organization's highest honor.
Mary Ann S. Wertam, club treasurer, said Monday she was flabbergasted when the award was revealed at a meeting earlier this month.
Wertam received the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, which was presented by Oneonta club President Kevin Kurkowski. "Mary Ann works so hard,'' Kurkowski said in a media release. ``She is always at every event. She is very dedicated to helping people in our local area.''
Kurkowski unveiled a plaque citing Wertam's outstanding service during a regular meeting of the Lions Club at the Stella Luna Restaurant in Oneonta on May 5.
``I was speechless,'' Wertam said Monday.
The Melvin Jones Fellowship is named for the founder of Lions Clubs International and is the highest form of recognition conferred by the foundation, the release said.
It is largely because of the fellowship program that the Lions Clubs International Foundation has been able to meet humanitarian needs in communities worldwide, in particular the needs of disadvantaged children, the sight-impaired and the elderly, said a letter of congratulations from LCIF Chairman James M. Ross.
Wertam said she joined the Lioness Club in 1983 because ``it was a good cause.'' She said she became a Lion member when the clubs merged in 1990.
``I've always been interested in helping people,'' Wertam said. ``It's fun going out to do projects.''
Wertam, 77, of Oneonta, retired in 1993 as manager of Key Bank's Worcester branch, where she worked for 27 years.
Lions club members recognized her skill at bank branch management and called on her to become treasurer, Wertam said, and she also was the group's first woman president, serving in the early 1990s.
Besides keeping track of finances as Lions treasurer, she "works the door," selling tickets at the annual pasta dinner in October, members said. She also spearheads the Lions Club's annual nut sales during the Christmas season.
On Monday, she checked the financial records and said the Lions Club has supported its ``Sight First'' campaign and locally helped Family Service Association and Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta and provided awards to Oneonta High School seniors, among other projects.
Wertam shared the news about the award with her adult children Diane Scholet and John E. Wertam and her grandchildren, the release said.
"The thing that comes to mind is her involvement,'' said former club President Charles Gould in a prepared statement. "When we do the Fourth of July function, she is there all day. She does an outstanding job. That's just the way she is."
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