April 28, 2025
BY JOHN BAILEY
The North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service recently announced the 2025 recipients of the Governor's Medallion Award for Volunteer Service and Darlene Sanders, Exodus Homes volunteer, was chosen from Catawba County.
The award ceremony will be held May 12 at the North Carolina State Capitol building in Raleigh.
The Governor's Medallion Award for Volunteer Service was implemented in 2006 to recognize the top 20-25 volunteers in the state.
Only one Medallion nomination is permitted per county. A statewide panel reviews and evaluates all these nominations sent from each county to determine the award recipients.
Sanders was nominated after being recognized at the 2024 Catawba County Giving From the Heart (GFH) Volunteer Awards, hosted by the Catawba County United Way.
Sanders graduated from Exodus Homes in 2018 after being in the program for almost four years, according to her 2024 GFH nomination form. She was always willing to volunteer in the program. No job was too big or too small for Sanders to tackle while she dealt with her own health issues. While in the program, she was a senior resident over a house of five women, maintaining program guidelines and being a mentor to other women who were recovering from addiction and incarceration.
She is 10+ years clean and is an example to all Exodus Homes’ residents that recovery is possible. Sanders is firm and able to hold people accountable in a very loving, non-judgmental way. People have come to trust her and seek her counsel.
Learn more about the Governor’s Volunteer Awards at - https://www.nc.gov/working/volunteer-opportunities/volunteernc/governors-volunteer-service-awards.
To learn more about the Catawba County Giving From the Heart Volunteer awards visit - https://www.ccunitedway.com/giving-heart-volunteer-awards.
Nominations for the 2025 GFH awards are currently being accepted at https://www.ccunitedway.com/form/2023-giving-from-the-heart-volun.