The Mercer Island City Council began recognizing outstanding citizen efforts in 1990 and has continued this tradition for almost 30 years.
Honorees are people or entities whose achievements might have gone unrecognized in some settings but who have improved Island life through a broad range of community service, fundraising or other means.
This year’s recipients (for 2019) are David and Kendra Uhler. They accepted their award online, during the July 21 council meeting, from Councilmember Salim Nice.
The Uhlers, who have been active in community improvement for years, have been instrumental in coordinating a variety of all-volunteer efforts in response to the current coronavirus pandemic.
David has led city volunteers in responding to calls of service, distributing masks and assisting the Youth and Family Services Department with donations management.
Together, the Uhlers have volunteered more than 500 hours during the pandemic.
As far back as 2014, David was key in assisting the city with responding and recovering from Mercer Island’s E. coli incident by managing Island volunteers performing water distribution at the Community and Event Center. For the next five years, David and Kendra both assisted the Mercer Island Emergency Volunteer Teams by leading the emergency well and community point of distribution training, child care team, Mercer Island Radio Operators and led the Volunteer Operations Center.
The Uhlers have assisted with past Summer Celebration and National Night Out events, four full-scale emergency training exercises and the 2018 Islander Middle School bomb threat training by helping run the Emergency Operations Center.
In October 2019, David was asked to lead the entire Mercer Island Emergency Volunteer corps, which comprised 652 people. The corps included the disaster medical, damage assessment, search & rescue, registration, sheltering, child care, ham radio operators, mental health, transportation, emergency well operation and community points of distribution teams.
“The Uhlers are truly committed to the Mercer Island community, and the depth and consistency of their support for all of their neighbors are commendable and deeply appreciated,” city officials stated in a press release.
For more on Citizens of the Year, go to the city of Mercer Island’s website.
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