BRAINERD — The Brainerd Noon Rotary Club, in partnership with the Central Lakes Rotary Club, recently announced the annual 2022 Lakes Area "Service Above Self" award went to Rick Bricker.
“Rick stood out for his extraordinary breadth and depth of service leadership over three decades,” the Rotary clubs announced in a news release. “Given his sudden death last November he could not receive this recognition in person, so we thank his loving wife Susan and family for supporting Rick’s service legacy.
The purpose of the Lakes Area "Service Above Self" program is to raise awareness of Rotary's primary value, "Service Above Self" because healthy communities are filled with people who love to serve others.
Some of Bricker’s service examples include:
- Owned and operated Crystal Cleaners since 1986 with his wife Susan.
- Member of the Brainerd Noon Rotary Club and served many positions. As a Rotary District Governor, he took on human trafficking. Most recently Rick and Susan spent countless hours supporting the Rotary Ends Human Trafficking music festival this past August.
- As a Blandin graduate, he started the Brainerd Community Garden.
- He and Susan had a great compassion for underserved kids. In Brainerd, they supported a local winter coat drive for area children by using their business as a collection center and cleaning service. Just before his death they gave out over 600 winter jackets.
- Through many mission trips with the Faith Project he built schools, purchased bikes and created clean water systems for children in Haiti.
- Mentored young community leaders in community service.
“Rick’s many contributions improved the health of our community by raising awareness to Rotary's primary value, ‘Service Above Self,’” the news release stated. “This core value is founded in our Judeo-Christian belief system and most would agree that the world’s greatest leaders exemplify this value like Martin Luther King, Ghandi and Mother Theresa. But, the truth is that we are surrounded by everyday heroes who put others before themselves to make their part of the world a better place.”
Past monthly service awards were given to Peter Nelson, Heather Kelm, Donn Peterson, Paula Person, Kirsten McKee, Kevin Thesing, Rick Bricker, Kathy Adams, Rose Payne and John Erickson.
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Those wanting to nominate a lakes area resident in 2023 for service recognition do not need to be a member of a local service club, but they must live in the Brainerd lakes area. The form along with the criteria can be found online at https://tinyurl.com/2p7texxu .
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