AARP Tennessee Honors 2016 Andrus Award Winners

AARP Recognizes Anna Kapoor for Commitment to Community Service; wins AARP’s Most Prestigious Volunteer Award

Dewayne Linger Selected as Honorable Mention for Tennessee

 

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – AARP is pleased to announce that Anna Kapoor has been selected to receive the 2016 AARP Tennessee Andrus Award for Community Service.  This honor is the Association’s most prestigious and visible state volunteer award, recognizing people for service which has greatly benefited the community, supporting AARP’s vision and mission, and inspiring others. The award is named for AARP’s founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus.

“Dr. Andrus founded AARP as a social mission organization with a single guiding principle: “to serve, not to be served,” said Rebecca Kelly, AARP Tennessee State Director.  “Anna Kapoor’s commitment to serving her community is an inspiring example of how each of us can make a difference and work toward positive social change.”

Kapoor, a resident of Johnson City, Tenn., volunteers her time to serve a wide variety of organizations in her community. To her credit, she makes time to helps feed young adults at the Wesley Foundation for East Tennessee State University, volunteers at her church, and regularly brings food to elderly people who are not able to leave their home.

Kapoor is an oncology nurse by training and she can often be found using her skills and expertise to help people fighting cancer. Her generosity goes far beyond our state and national borders. For more than 20 years, Kapoor has travelled overseas to help provide medical services to needy families in both Mexico and the Czech Republic.

In honor of Kapoor and in recognition of her work, AARP has made a $2,500 donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an organization she has served for many years.

Due to such a robust pool of nominees in 2016, AARP Tennessee’s Andrus Award committee also selected an honorable mention for this year’s Andrus Awards. Dewayne Linger, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., was chosen for this special recognition.

Linger saw an urgent need to feed the needy of his community. He started mission, known as M14, to provide hot meals. Today, M14 has grown to serve more than 2,000 people and provides several hot meals each week. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, Linger and his group prepare meals for people who either cannot cook for themselves or are unable to leave their home.

Linger has always put the needs of others first. In addition, to hunger, Linger created a ministry called Dry Bone Shelter which offers clothing and safe shelter to families in need.

His selfless acts, service and commitment provides an extraordinary example of the difference that we can all make in the lives of individuals in our community. In his honor, AARP Tennessee has donated $500 to support his work in Harriman.

“Dewayne Linger has done so much for people in need and we are grateful to have to opportunity to recognize and support his mission,” Kelly added. “Dr. Andrus would certainly have been proud to see how his commitment to service has changed so many lives.”

Recipients from each state, across the nation, were chosen for their ability to enhance the lives of AARP members and prospective members, improve the community in or for which the work was performed, and inspire others to volunteer.