Sheridan’s Montano Honored By AARP Wyoming For Volunteer Work

Becky Farrell, AARP Wyoming

AARP Wyoming is honoring Sheridan’s Clarence Montano as its Community Action Volunteer of the Year. Montano was presented with his award by AARP Wyoming during its Volunteer Recognition Dinner in Sheridan on Nov. 14.

Montano is one of the leaders of Sheridan’s Community Action Team, which is a group of local volunteers, and is consistently one of the state’s most active. This year the Sheridan Action Team was a mainstay at events such as Sheridan’s Third Thursday in addition to a number of other efforts such as the team’s work on care packages for deployed soldiers in October.

Montano is originally from Colorado, but has lived in Wyoming for the past 25 years, moving from Oregon. Montano retired from the VA in the year 2000, after working in the VA Health System. Montano joined AARP as a volunteer in 2015. His first project was the annual Souper Bowl, a food drive in which residents are asked to predict the Super Bowl winner by donating to food bins decorated with the colors of the teams participating in the NFL title game. The Souper Bowl collected over 750 pounds of food in 2019.

Among the highlights of the Community Action Team was the inaugural Sheridan Veterans Golf Tournament, which saw 58 participants take to Kendrick Golf Course on June 15. Montano headed up the planning and execution of the tournament, along with representatives from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), American Legion, the Sheridan VA Health System, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Volunteers of America. The tournament sponsorships made it possible for a number of veterans and active duty military to take part in the tournament.

Teams were broken into four-person teams with most teams including a veteran from either the Sheridan VA Center or active duty members of the military, including one national guardsman who is set to deploy in July. The top-three teams in the 15-team tournament each had a hospitalized veteran on their team.

Montano is joined in his AARP activities by his wife Stella. They have been married 45 years and have two children. Aside from AARP activities, Montano loves to hunt, fish, garden, golf, and read. He is a veteran, having served 13 years, with 3 1/3 years active duty and 10 years army reserves or air national guard.