Four Carbon County and Tamaqua area volunteers were recognized at a dinner Tuesday for their contributions to the community.

Patrick Reilly, president and CEO of Mauch Chunk Trust Company, said this is the 19th year for the MCT Heroes program.

This year honorees are Lisa Rosenberger, David Hawk, Shirley Stamm and Eric Zizelmann.

MCT board member Ida Queen said the group received 20 nominations for the 2018 award. “We had a tie for third and fourth place this year,” she said.

To qualify as a community hero, nominees volunteer and dedicate their time and talents to local charities and organizations and are “who we believe should be recognized for these efforts. We hope that in honoring these people every year we would encourage others to become involved and help to make our community a better place to live and work,” Reilly said.

David Hawk of Palmerton began volunteering in 1965 as a Boy Scout. As an adult, he has been involved with the Scouts of America since 1988 and served as a den leader until 1992 before joining the Palmerton Boy Scout Troop 41 to serve as a scoutmaster.

Hawk has been an active member of the Palmerton Community Festival over the past two decades as well as volunteering at the Carbon County Fair. With Hawk’s robust white beard, he has volunteered to dress up as “Santa Claus” for more than 40 years to visit families’ homes, school organizations and fire companies.

Hawk says he volunteers because he enjoys working with kids. He thanked the board for the honor and his family.

“I want to thank my wife. She’s put up with me for a long time,” he said.

“If the kids gain anything out of it, I did well.”

In addition to taking home an engraved plaque and state citations, each nominee receives $200 donated to a charity of their choosing. Hawk chose the Christian Action Council of Palmerton Area Churches to receive his donation.

Lisa Rosenberger of Albrightsville has been a Girl Scout leader for the past 12 years.

Under her guidance, the troops have visited senior and personal care homes to sing Christmas carols and started an annual holiday project which sends care packages in shoe boxes to children around the world in times of disaster. Her troop has helped with the Earth Day Cleanup, and local food pantries.

Over the past six years Rosenberger has volunteered with the Christ Lutheran Church Youth Group and does a lot of fundraising needed for the youth groups. She has volunteered for four years at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church for the free community Thanksgiving dinner, making homemade applesauce.

Rosenberger works with Family Promise and donated her $200 to Turn To Us, and Girl Scout Camp Evergreen.

“My parents always taught us right from wrong, to walk through your neighborhood and find who needs help and try to do good,” she said.

“Find your thing and do good in the community, everyone has a talent, gift. Sometimes it’s as simple as giving a compliment. It’s the small things that make a big difference,” she said.

Shirley Stamm, of Lehighton, also began her volunteering career in the Girl Scouts. Since 1995, she has been a volunteer with the Blue Mountain Health Auxiliary where she works in the gift shop and serves as the treasurer for the group. She organizes bake sales and fundraiser. She earned the title of “Girl Scout Cookie Lady,” having ordered and delivered cookies for 15 years.

She volunteers at the annual CROP Hunger Walk each year in October by hanging signs along the route and completing the walk.

Stamm believes she is here to help other people whenever and wherever she can. The Lehighton Interfaith Fellowship will receive her donation.

“I don’t think of myself as anyone special. I just do what comes natural. I was always told growing up there is someone who has it much worse than you do. Helping others is just the right thing to do,” Stamm said.

Eric Zizelmann of Tamaqua also began volunteering at the age of 7 in the Boy Scouts. In 1992 he traveled to Florida to help with the hurricane relief effort and again in 2005 to help offer aid in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Zizelmann served as a volunteer firefighter for several years and took over for his dad in 2014 as the master of ceremonies for the annual Memorial Day Service of Remembrance and parade held in Tamaqua. He has been a member of the Tamaqua Chamber of Commerce since 1999 and currently serves as a board member for the Tamaqua Blue Raider Foundation, a group that raises money to bring back initiatives the school can no longer financially support.

The Tamaqua Area Community Partnership and the American Hose Fire Company No. 1 will receive his donation.

“None of us do this by ourselves,” Zizelmann said. “Something compels us to do this.”

Zizelmann thanked his friends, family, co-workers and wife for all their help in his volunteering efforts.

“My wife, who in my moments of emotional frailty, picks up the cross for me and says, ‘What are you thinking, this is going to be great.’”

Anyone wishing to nominate a volunteer for 2019 can visit the MCT website.