2025 Achievement Award Winners and New 25 Year Members

This years Achievement Awards and new 25 year members were announced at the Winter Banquet on January 10, 2026. The banquet was a major success, attracting over 140 members . Here is a photo of just a portion of the crowd, obviously having a great time. After a great meal we began the awards program, recognizing 50 different individuals who won a total of 61 Achievement awards. Here is a photo of the back pack sporting the club logo that all of the winners received held up by Debbie Bucholz, who was one of this year's winners. This is a photo of the winners who attended the banquet after the awards were announced. Following the awards presentation, we hononered 11 new 25 year members. The afternoon came to a close with the singing of the Club Song. This is a photo of the Club singers singing the Club song to wrap up the banquet.

All Time Mileage Leader Recognition

Before the Achievement awards were announced, president Cathy Fischer, presented a special trophy to Allan Roberts, who on the day after Thankgiving broke the all time Club mileage record of 55,867 miles. Glee Crowder, previous record holder, presented Allan with a trophy and an embroided baseball cap. A photo of Allan (on the left) with Mike Lindstedt.

Following is a list of the 10 Achievement Awards and who won them.

Millennium Award

This award is given to all members who hiked 1,000 or more miles during the Club year. This year there were 32 winners of this award, an all time record. Here is a photo of Pathfinder Ed Wright announcing the 1,000 mile award winners. 
Cheryl and Dewey Conces - Tied for the most miles, each hiking 2,827 miles
Allan Roberts - Was third with 2,643 miles.  Allan who has his sights set on 60,000 miles, sets a new club mileage record each time he hikes.
Mike Lindstedt - Comes in at 4th place with 2,238 miles: the only other member to hike over 2,000 miles last year.  

Here is a list of the others who hiked over 1,000 miles last year.
Rick Kinnaman
John Wagner
Kae Ramey
Rick Braun
Marge Braun
Cherie Voege
Phil Smith
Katy Smith
Theresa Ray
Randy Duncan
Rick Wortman
Sandy Nichols
Jo Anne Starzyk
Tish Brafford
Marian Fahy
Cindy Schmidt
Mary Barbara Miller
Delaram Moghaddam
Laura Otten
Christine Nitz - longest tenured member at 46 year to hike over 1,000 miles
Jan Adams
Richard Stroup
Lorraine Smith
Mary Bruss
David Kincaid
Patrick Eaton
Dale McCuiston
Marti Burton

Marathon Award

This award is given to all members who complete the longest scheduled hike during the year. This year we had two winners who both finished the same hike of 31 miles (50K). 
Theresa Ray
Therese Cokain

Milestone Award

This award is given to any member who has attained more than 10,000 lifetime miles with the Club. Unfortunately we had no winner of this award this prestegious award this year.

Around the World Award

Beginning with last years Winter Banquet the board felt it appropriate to recognize hikers who have walked far enough on Club hikes to circle the earth which is 24,901 miles. Last year we recognized 10 active members who have achived this feat, including several member (Glee Crowder and Allan Roberts) who have circled the earth twice . Regrettably we do not have any winners of this award this year, however Rick Braun is getting close with over 20,000 miles.

That's it for our hiker awards and now for our Hike Leader awards:

Pathfinder Award

This award is given to any member who leads 50 or more hikes during the year. This year we had 13 winners. 
Ed Wright        - led the most hikes with 141
Rick Kinnaman    - also led over 100 hikes
Rick Braun       - also led over 100 hikes
Rick Wortman
David Kincaid
Phil Smith
Debbie Bucholz
Janet Cohen
Harold Crooks
Jim Griffin
John Schlechte
Karen LeClerc
Marti Burton

Trail Blazer Award

The Trail Blazer Award is given to any member who led 15 or more different hikes during the past year. Everyone enjoys a new hike and this is one of the more challenging awards to win. This year we have 5 winners. 
Kelley Hale
Karen LeClerc
June Sergi
Terry Roesch
Phil Coons

Trail Maintenance Award

Dave Drzewiecki, who manages this award, which is given to any member who has contributed 16 or more volunteer hours on a trail maintenance project, although most of this year's winners go far beyond that, sometimes volunteering 100 or more hours of their time to give something back to the trails we all love to hike, mostly in Eagle Creek Park. Here are the 7 winners:
Phil Coons
Gary Fine
Russ Himes
Ned Lewis
Frank Povinelli
Scott Beam
Karen LeClerc - this is her third award this year

Club Service Award

This award is given by the Board of Directors to any member the board feels deserves special recognition for their service to the Club. This year our President, Cathy Fischer, announced this year's winner Paul Klimowitch. If you recall we had an issue with mileage tampering, which was ultimately traced to automated trasactions originating outside the US searching any website (including ours) to see if they could get in and if so cause trouble. The only part of our website that was not protected was mileage entry and this is where the corruption was happening. Paul stepped up quickly and programmed the password-controlled mileage entry process that was implemented this past October, with no problems other than a minor inconvenience to hike leaders, which no one likes but in this case was deemed necessary.

Indyhike.org Award

This award was presented by Delaram Mohadamm who is our Publicity Director. This award is given to the individual responsible for submitting the most photos on the Club website and social media sites. Phil Coons a perennial winner of this award, once a again won this award.

Delaram went on to explain that in 2026 this award will trasition to a Best Picture award. Here is how we anticipate the process will work. A small committee will select between 5 and 10 semi-finalist photos from our website and our three other social media sites that will be emailed to all members for a vote. The photo receiving the most votes will be declared the winner at next year's Winter Banquet.

Pinnacle Award

Sorry to say there was no winner of the Bill and Nell Larrison Pinnacle Award again this year. This award is very difficult to win and only two members have ever won it - Glee Crowder and David Kincaid. To win this award you must hike over 1,000 miles, lead over 50 hikes, lead 12 different hikes and contribute 16 or more hours of trail maintenance.

That's it for the 10 Achievement awards, but we had one more honor to bestow.

Rookie of the Year

President, Cathy Fisher, presented a Certificate of Achievement to 1st year member, Richard Stroup for hiking over 1,000 miles and leading 22 hikes during his first year as a member of our Club.

New 25 Year Members

Finally, Terry Roesch our new Membership offier announced the 11 new 25 year members and presented each with and engraved paper weight. Here is a photo of 5 of the new 25 year members who attended the banquet. 
Susan Alden
Wilma Bailey
Anita Dansker
Daymon Evans
Ron Higdon
Bob Kriz
Ruth Ann Loser
Carolyn Mitzel
June Sergi
Lynn Thurston
Gloria Tumey