Nearly 500 people gathered in the grand ballroom of the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton Tuesday for the community’s 20th year of celebrating volunteerism with the Celebrating Volunteers gala. Volunteers in eight award categories were honored during the event, which has been hosted by the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region and The Post-Crescent for all 20 years.

The photo slide show below lists the honorees, award sponsors and the nonprofits that will benefit from the $5,000 included with each award ($1,000 plus a $1,500 scholarship for the Youth Volunteer of the Year). In all, $36,000 was awarded to Fox Valley nonprofits in the names of this year’s award recipients, and $660,000 since the event was created in 1998 to honor community volunteers Paul and Elaine Groth, who died in a car accident in 1997.

For the first time, UW-Fox Valley’s Communication and Theater Arts 106 Class, under the guidance of Tom Frantz, produced the award recipients’ videos. Watch them at CelebrateVolunteers.org.

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Jane Dwyre Garton, Walter L. Rugland Community Service Award, sponsored by Thrivent Financial, with presenter Terry Timm, chief administrative officer. Jane divided her $5,000 prize between Friends of the Appleton Library and the Women’s Fund for the Fox Valley Region.