Reynolds, Pals honored with Mason City’s highest award given for public service

MASON CITY — The president of the revived Christmas Cheer Fund organization as well as the former longtime sheriff of Cerro Gordo County have been honored with the highest award given for public service in Mason City and Cerro Gordo County.

Jane Reynolds and Kevin Pals were recognized with the Mason City Noon Rotary Club’s “Service Above Self” awards, presented annually to citizens who are of high moral character and have committed their lives to special service to the community, promoting the ideals and goals of Rotary.

Reynolds was recognized for taking on the challenge of re-establishing the Christmas Cheer Fund in Mason City after it was terminated by its former sponsor. “I’m very humbled about it. It did take a lot of work, but a lot of great team from former Globe members and people in the community, and the response we got was tremendous and want to help our neighbors, and that’s why we do it.”

Reynolds says it was quite an effort to get the Cheer Fund up and running again.  “It took months to get — you know we needed a website, we needed a Facebook page, we needed all the legal things that had to be done. It was a big learning experience for me and everybody else.”

Noon Rotary has also recognized a government official each year for their efforts. Kevin Pals recently retired after a 46-year career in law enforcement, including a 24-year career as Cerro Gordo County’s Sheriff. Pals says he was surprised by the honor.  “Obviously I’m honored and it’s humbling. You know when you are in your job working in all those years, you never think about doing it for the rewards, but you do it to serve the people. It’s just great to be honored and recognized as that, and I had fun doing it most days.”

Pals says he’s honored to be recognized by Rotary with this award. “The Rotary is a great organization and they do great work for not only the community but their activeness in the community is also recognized by many others, so it’s nice to be recognized by them.”

Reynolds and Pals were honored at the Noon Rotary club’s weekly meeting held yesterday.