Because of Covid 19 this was a very unusual year for the Hiking Club, in that all hiking was suspended for 10 weeks from mid-March though the end of May. Hiking was resumed on June 1, under strict Covid-19 policy guidelines (e.g., masks and social distancing).
Accordingly, due to the decreased opportunity to hike the Board of Directors adjusted the award threshold for three of the Achievement Awards for 2020 as follows:
Millennium Award - reduced to 800 miles from 1,000 miles
Pathfinder Award - reduced to leading 40 hikes versus 50 hikes
Trailblazer Award - reduced to leading 12 different hikes versus leading 15 different hikes
Award thresholds for all of the remaining awards were left unchanged for 2020.
The winners of the Annual Achievement Awards and new 25 year members are normally announced at the Annual Winter Banquet usually held on the first Sunday in December, however this year's Banquet was cancelled due to Covid 19 concerns. This year's award winners and new 25 year members are announced on the Club website (i.e., this page). Each of the 44 winners of 58 different awards (some people won more than one award) received a gray short sleeve t-shirt embossed with the Club logo and 2020 Achievement Awards. Here is a photo of the award. The 13 new 25 year members each will receive a commerative plaque.
Following is a list of the twelve awards and who won them.
Millennium Award
Twentythree members hiked more than 800 miles in 2020; actually 14 exceeded 1,000 miles. For the 9th year in a row Glee Crowder topped the list with 2,190 miles.
Here is a list of all the winners:
Tish Brafford - 1,142 miles Rick Braun - 896 miles Mary Bruss - 923 miles Marti Burton - 857 miles Cheryl Conces - 1,739 miles Dewey Conces - 1,739 miles Glee Crowder - 2,190 miles Curtis Hinds - 1,550 miles Mike Kahlil - 1,098 miles David Kincaid - 1,010 miles Rick Kinnaman - 1,339 miles Julie Litten - 900 miles Jill McFall - 843 miles Christine Nitz - 854 miles Christel Norcross - 910 miles Kae Ramey - 1,168 miles Allan Roberts - 1,406 miles Mike Seeman - 808 miles Katy Smith - 945 miles Phil Smith - 1,210 miles Jo Anne Starzyk - 1,044 miles Cheri Voege - 1,391 miles Rick Wortman - 1,111 miles
Pathfinder Award
This award is given to any member who led 40 or more hikes during 2020 (down from 50 hikes in prior years). Glee Crowder once again led the most hikes with an incedible 242 hikes. Following is a list of all 15 winners of this award.
Dick Bacon - 62 hikes Tish Brafford - 40 hikes Rick Braun - 111 hikes Marti Burton - 54 hikes Janet Cohen - 81 hikes Harold Crooks - 59 hikes Glee Crowder - 242 hikes David Kincaid - 44 hikes Rick Kinnaman - 58 hikes Julie Litten - 80 hikes John Schlechte - 40 hikes Phil Smith - 72 hikes Jo Anne Starzyk - 41 hikes Kathy Whalen - 50 hikes Ed Wright - 41 hikes
Marathon Award
This award is given to all members who complete the longest scheduled hike, which this year was 31 miles (50 K).
This year we have five winners of this award. Once again all ladies.
Rita Bymaster Therese Cokain Sandra Nichols Kae Ramey Theresa Ray
Trailblazer Award
This award is given to members who lead 12 or more different hikes during the past year, down from 15 hikes in prior years. Everyone enjoys a new hike
and is one of the more challenging awards to win. This year we had six winners of this award:
Glee Crowder Edeltraud Evans David Kincaid Pat Lawler Terry Roesch Elaine Wright
Milestone Award
This award is presented to members who have attained 10,000 lifetime miles with the Club. This year two members achieved this impressive milestone:
Marge Braun Mike Khalil
Junior Hiker Award
There were no winners this year of this award which is given to hikers under the age of 18 who have hiked more than 100 miles with the Club.
Trail Maintenance Award
This award is given to any member who has contributed 16 or more volunteer hours on a trail maintenance project, although all of this year's winners have gone far beyond that, sometimes volunteering 100 or more hours of their time to give something back to the trails we all love to hike. Gary Fine had an impressive 152 volunteer hours at Eagle Creek Park.
This year we recognize five Club members:
Phil Coons Gary Fine Russ Himes Ned Lewis Frank Povinelli
Membership Award
This award is given to any member who is responsible for recruiting three or more new members to the Club during the Club year.
Regrettably there were no winners of this award in 2020
Club Service Award
This award is presented by the Board of Directors to any individual is deserving of special recognition for their service to the Club. This year the Board choose to recognize Joan Griffiths for her efforts in administering Yahoo Groups site previously used by the Club for broadcast emails for more than 10 years, and her efforts to orchestrate the recent shift to a comparable free service Google Groups. As part of this effort Joan had to set up over 400 Club members email addresses in the new service so the conversion could be seemless to the membership.
IndyHike.Org Award
It should come as no surprise that once again Phil Coons contributed the most photos to the Club website. Phil also maintains the Club's great Facebook page.
Bill and Nell Larrison Pinnacle Award
To win this award you must hike more than 1,000 miles, lead 50 or more hikes, lead 12 or more different hikes and complete 16 or more hours of Trail Maintenance. Regrettably, in this Covid-19 shortend year there was no winner of this award.
New 25 Year Members
This year we are recognizing 13 members who who have have been members of the Club for 25 years. This is a the largest number of members ever to receive this award.
Mary Ann Beuke Kathy Braun Claudia Clark Carol Fine Ricki Jo Hoffmann Peggy Hollett Tom Hollett Mary Ann Layman Cathy Mayfield Judy Torrence Cindy West Debbie Witcher Elaine Wright