Larry Ogden, president of the Hatteras Island Community Emergency Response Team (HI-CERT), has been awarded the prestigious North Carolina Governor’s Medallion Award for Volunteer Service. Ogden was honored for receiving the award—which is North Carolina’s highest volunteer honor—during the 2021 Governor’s Medallion Award ceremony that was held virtually from Raleigh at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
Ogden was nominated by Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson, who submitted a video nomination in which he highlighted Ogden’s tireless dedication to HI-CERT and the way that his leadership allowed the organization to respond quickly and effectively to support and provide recovery and relief efforts to the Hatteras Island community after Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the Outer Banks in September 2019.
“Larry’s can-do attitude and untiring commitment to his community can be seen each and every day in the success of the Hatteras Island Community Emergency Response Team,” Pearson stated in his nomination video. “Under Larry’s steadfast leadership as the only Hatteras Island CERT president, the team of more than 40 volunteers is fully trained and equipped to help their neighbors before, during and after any emergency. Larry’s selection as a Medallion Award winner is truly well-deserved.”
In addition to Pearson, Ogden was also nominated by Samantha Royster, program manager for North Carolina Emergency Management’s North Carolina Community Emergency Response Team.
In her written nomination form, Royster stated, “It was in 2019 that Larry Ogden and HI-CERT’s true spirit of community helping really shone. Hurricane Dorian hit the coast in September, and once again HI-CERT kicked into gear. They put in over 4,000 volunteer hours helping the residents of Hatteras Island with damage assessments and cleanup. HI-CERT has shown exemplary response to every storm to hit our coast. I believe that HI-CERT would not have accomplished a [fraction] of the marvelous things they have done without Larry Ogden’s leadership. I am equally confident that they will continue on, now that they have learned from the best.”
The North Carolina Governor’s Medallion Award for Volunteer Service was implemented in 2006 and is held in conjunction with the North Carolina Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards, which honor the spirit of volunteerism by recognizing individuals, groups and businesses that make a significant contribution to their community through volunteer service.
The prestigious Governor’s Medallion Award is designed to recognize the top 20-25 of these volunteers within the entire state. Medallion Award recipients are nominated at the county level by each county’s designated award coordinator, and only one Medallion Award nomination is permitted per county.
Out of the eight nominations within Dare County, the award coordinator was permitted to submit one Governor’s Medallion Award nominee from that group. Governor’s Medallion Award nominations are reviewed and evaluated by a statewide panel that determines the award recipients, and in 2021 this panel selected Ogden as a Governor’s Medallion Award winner. Ogden is one of only 22 Governor’s Medallion Award winners to be recognized within the state of North Carolina.
Dare County’s winners of the 2021 Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards will be announced in the weeks to come. For more information about the North Carolina Governor’s Medallion Award as well as the Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards, click here.