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Coffee County citizens are encouraged to attend the Coffee County Commission meeting Jan. 9 and celebrate this year’s top volunteer.

After soliciting public nominations for dedicated volunteers, citizens from various walks of life served on a selection committee to independently review and score all submissions. Those results were compiled by the County Coordinator and the top-scoring volunteer selected.

In conjunction with the Sixteenth Annual Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards, Volunteer Tennessee is pleased to recognize Pam Bussell, who has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication to serving the people of Tullahoma and Coffee County.

Pam Bussell has volunteered nearly 20 years with the Salvation Army: not only helping people financially and with food, but is also in charge of the Angel Tree, ensuring over 600 kids in Coffee County have Christmas gifts. She also leads the Kettle Drive, recruiting/scheduling over 300 volunteers to ring bells and collect donations.

She has served on the board of the Tullahoma Housing Authority for nearly 10 years, helping public housing residents. Pam helped organize a summer feeding program; worked on fundraising events for United Way and Blue Monarch; helped in a food pantry to ensure those in need had access to food at any hour of any day, even taking calls for help from police in the middle of the night. She also helps with annual local toy drives.

Pam coordinated a food and clothing drive in response to the flooding in Waverly, Tenn.; and provided assistance to victims and first responders after two tornadoes struck in Tullahoma.

Working with Chik-fil-A, she raised $7,000 for United Way’s Stuff the Bus drive to provide school supplies for Tullahoma teachers. Pam helps collect food donations for Storehouse Food Pantry in Manchester (led by 2022 GVSA honoree Staria Davison) and formed Better Together: a resource group over nearly 100 churches, agencies and businesses in Coffee County that meets monthly, developing ways to help people in need while preventing duplication of effort.

Coffee County Coordinator G. Lamar Wilkie noted, “One of our greatest expressions of love for the place we live is by giving back as a volunteer. Imagine the kind of community we would have if everyone in Coffee County gave just a couple of hours of their time and effort each month to making it a better place for everyone.”

This exceptional achievement will not only be honored at the Coffee County Commission meeting on Jan. 9; Pam will also be honored, along with recipients from the other counties across Tennessee, at the Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards banquet in Franklin, Tennessee on Feb. 18.

Volunteer Tennessee coordinates the Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards at the state level. Volunteer Tennessee is a 25-member bipartisan citizen board appointed by Governor Lee to oversee AmeriCorps and service-learning programs; and to advance volunteerism and citizen service to solve community problems in the Volunteer State. For more information about Volunteer Tennessee and the Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards, visit www.volunteertennessee.net.