Mauch Chunk Trust named four Carbon County and Tamaqua-area residents Friday as its newest Community Heroes during the bank’s 25th annual Community Appreciation Day celebration.

Carolyn Long, Tom Lager, Dan Odorizzi and Kathy Goff were recognized at MCT’s main office at 1111 North St., bringing the total number of Community Heroes honored by the bank to 132 since the program began.

MCT’s Annual Community Hero Program recognizes four people each year who have displayed outstanding service to their community, as nominated by the public and selected by a volunteer committee. Honorees must be active in nonprofit or community organizations that benefit or improve the quality of life in Carbon County or the Tamaqua area on a volunteer basis, have devoted substantial personal time to those efforts, and have made a significant impact.

The 2026 MCT Community Heroes Celebration Banquet will be held on June 25 at 6 p.m. at Jim Thorpe Memorial Hall. The four Community Heroes are invited to share their stories at 7:30 p.m. following dinner

Carolyn Long

Long has coordinated Trinity Food Pantry in Lehighton since 2011, but her connection to it goes back much further.

“A friend of mine said we could use somebody to help, and I said OK. That was back in the early ’90s, and I’m still there,” Long said.

She took over the coordinator role when her predecessor could no longer continue. The pantry now serves about 1,000 people a month through a drive-through model adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic — a change Long said is here to stay.

“We started that with COVID, and we will continue to do that, because we can serve them better, and we’re able to give them more food and extras,” she said. “Mother’s Day, we had some extra things for the mothers such as hair shampoo, conditioner, body wash, something special for the women. Sometimes we have bouquets of flowers. We try to make it special for some of the older women who are by themselves.”

The need has grown considerably since Long first got involved.

“We’re serving many more than we did back in the ’90s,” she said. “We’ve had several people come in and say, ‘I’ve never done this before, and I don’t know what to do, and I really don’t want to do this,’ but that’s why we’re there. We’re there to help them and try to make them feel comfortable.”

For Long, the pantry serves a purpose beyond food distribution.

“They tell us stories, we tell them stories, and for some people, it’s the only people they talk to,” she said. “Some elderly people have nothing, no families here. So we become good friends, and they’re very grateful for what we do. We’re grateful to see them and help them.”

She said she was caught off guard by the recognition.

“I’m overwhelmed, I’m thrilled, and it’s such an honor,” Long said.

Tom Lager

Lager, 76, has spent more than five decades serving the community across multiple organizations. A member of Diligent Fire Company No. 3 since 1970, he is also an active EMT and board member with the Lehighton Ambulance Association, a volunteer with the Jim Thorpe Sportsman’s Club, a member of the Five Mile High Fish Stocking Club, part of the Mauch Chunk Rod and Gun Club, and active in St. Mark’s and St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he has served as Sunday school teacher, superintendent, vestry member and choir member over the years.

Lager said the recognition matters less for what it means to him personally than for what it might inspire in others.

“Personally, I’d rather be at home, or I’d rather be at the fire station, or my church, but it’s nice that somebody came out and said, ‘Hey, that guy did something good,’ ” Lager said. “But then you’re going to publish this in the paper, and it will be on TV 13, and the bank is going to put it all over the county. Somebody will see me and say, ‘If he did it, so can I.’ That’s what it’s about. Getting other people to volunteer.”

With Memorial Day approaching and the nation’s 250th anniversary on the horizon, Lager framed volunteerism in a broader historical context.

“We’re reminded at this time of the year with Memorial Day and the Fourth of July and the 250th anniversary of the people who started this country,” he said. “They weren’t paying back, they were paying forward. Now we have the chance to pay back those people who went before us, but we also pay forward by being examples for the people around us.”

He has watched the ranks of volunteers thin over the years, particularly in emergency services, where training requirements deter some would-be recruits. “You get people in the fire department who come for the excitement, and once the hard work starts, once you tell them you’ve got to take this training and that training, they say, ‘I didn’t know I had to do that,’ ” Lager said. “ ‘I thought I could just drive fast and blow the sirens.’ It’s the ones that truly want to be volunteers that will go and take the training, and they’ll want to do their best at it.”

Dan Odorizzi

Odorizzi, 52, has spent five to six years volunteering with the Tamaqua Hunger Campaign, the Tamaqua Train Station Partnership and the Spirit of Christmas, a holiday decorating effort that transforms downtown Tamaqua each year.

He credited a previous MCT Community Hero with drawing him deeper into volunteer work.

“Previous winner of this award, Judy Hoppes, was the one who really pushed me into a lot of it, got me more involved with the Spirit of Christmas,” Odorizzi said. He now serves as co-chair of the program.

Most people see the finished product without understanding what goes into it.

“It’s about eight people who put it all together for a weekend,” Odorizzi said of Spirit of Christmas. “It’s a lot of work. The month of November, I basically talked to the co-chair more than I talked to my wife. I’m 52 and it’s a lot of up and down ladders. We hang bows on all the parking meters at Christmas. It’s a lot of walking.”

The payoff comes on one particular night each year.

“The day Santa Claus arrives is always a great night. You see all your hard work — kids are thrilled,” Odorizzi said.

He sees the effort as an investment beyond the present.

“I’ve always felt that if you help out now, it might create more opportunity in the future for the next generation volunteering,” he said. “I grew up in the town, so it’s nice to be able to do stuff in the town.”

Kathy Goff

Goff has been volunteering for more than 20 years, beginning with St. Joseph Regional Academy in Jim Thorpe, where she served as Home and School Association president and led fundraising efforts for several years. After the school closed, she shifted her focus to Marian Catholic High School, serving in various Booster Club roles, including president and secretary, and organizing the school’s annual Polar Plunge for the past 13 years. She remains active in the school’s Blue Gold Club and still works the football stand each fall, even though her children no longer attend.

Through all of it, she said, the people beside her have made the difference.

“I have a really core group of volunteers that work with me in a lot of different places, and they are just the best,” Goff said. “When you have a good team around you, everything just falls into place.”

She was surprised by the response once her name went public Friday morning.

“I’m not used to being recognized, but it is really an honor,” she said. “I’ve already gotten a few texts from people that apparently have gone to the bank on their lunch hour and said, ‘Hey, I saw you.’ So it’s kind of surreal.”

Goff said volunteering is a value she has tried to instill in her children since they were young.

“Even when my kids used to have birthday parties, I would have them get supplies for the dog and cat shelter, and I would never send their pictures anywhere,” she said. “I wanted them to make sure they did it because they wanted to, and I do it because I want to.”

She offered a pointed message on the growing shortage of volunteers.

“Volunteers are sorely lacking everywhere today,” Goff said. “It’s nearly impossible to get people to come out and do this. Everybody thinks there’s no time to do it. There is time to do something. Even if you can’t do it on a weekend, you can do something else during the week. You can give a couple hours of your time. It’s like going to the gym; you find the time, you find the time to volunteer, too.”