Strope Awarded Modern Woodmen Hometown Hero

Lucille Strope accepts her ‘Hometown Hero’ award from Josh Gray Wednesday evening.

Local volunteer Lucille Strope of Orchard was recently recognized for countless hours of service to the community for the Modern Woodmen Hometown Hero award.

On June 7, Strope was honored with a supper at Dusty’s and then presented with a certificate and a $100 award grant to be donated to a charitable organization of the her choice. The Orchard Young Men’s Club was chosen to receive the donation to go toward the new community center.

 “I would love to see that community center built. And I’ll do anything I can to help,” said Strope 

Josh Grey, activities coordinator for the Modern Woodmen chapter, explained that the process of picking Strope for the award was simple. ​

“We have the award to give to anyone in the community who volunteers,” said Grey. “It’s a way to give back to them and say thank you.”  
 
Grey also mentioned that Strope is a huge member of the community that does her volunteer work in secret.
 
“Most people don’t know that she does the flowers on main street,” commented Grey. “A lot of people don’t see that because she’s out there early in the morning taking care of them.”
 
Strope said that taking care of the flowers was what makes her service to the community easy. In fact, the flowers called Ramblers, come from Missouri which she goes and picks up each year as babies and brings them back to plant.

“I can’t get them around here because they grow so fast and don’t do well in the green houses,” she said.
 
Still, Strope always keeps the community in mind when doing volunteer work.
 
“Hopefully we’ll get some things going here to make our town look better,” commented Strope.
 
She also mentioned that fixing up the buildings on main street was a huge stepping stone for the community and appreciated all who worked on the project. By taking a strong community and making upgrades like that, I think we are going to be okay, said Strope.
 
“I take great pride in this town,” she said.