Selfishlessness and giving back for the greater good of the community are two of the reasons why the Perry Chamber Board chose this year’s volunteer and young professional of the year award winners.

Receiving the first Jack Finneseth Volunteer of the Year award is retired teacher and active community supporter Linda Kaufman. Perry Chamber Executive Director Bob Wilson says his favorite program she is part of is Volunteer Day during homecoming week at the high school but there are several other efforts she’s involved in.

“One of the big things that Mrs. Kaufman has done is the Veteran’s Day ceremony.  That is unlike anything else that I know of in the state.  That’s volunteer driven.  She’s still involved in that even though she’s retired.  Another huge thing is she was one of the founding members of the 100+ People for Perry which is a new group that’s giving back to civic organization and non-profits and we can’t see where that pans out throughout the entire year.  Mrs, Kaufman is just a great person in the community.”

As for the Young Professional of the Year, Wilson says Matt McDevitt was chosen for the award based on his work toward building the connector trail between Perry and Woodward along with his housing initiatives.

“I’ve never met someone who genuinely loves the community like Matt does and he applies that to all things.  A huge thing that he has done is the housing assessment through Perry Industries.  That was a very important conversation that he started to see where things are at, where things can continue to go and that’s the conversation we’re still having and still making great progress on.”

Both winners received their award at the Chamber’s annual dinner Tuesday.