Carolyn Self, a retired social worker in the mental health sector and longtime civic leader in Hopkinsville, has attended more meetings of the Hopkinsville League of Women Voters than anyone could probably count.
But Self won’t soon forget the meeting she attended Monday evening at The Corner Coffeehouse. League president Nikki Chambers presented Self with a trophy in recognition of her “dedicated service” to the organization since July 1, 1969.
“I don’t deserve anything special,” Self said as Chambers made the presentation.
“You deserve more,” Chambers said.
Some of the members currently in the Hopkinsville league were not yet born when Self joined the organization 55 years ago. Self is a past president of the league and helped run numerous candidate forums during every election cycle. She has served in numerous other organizations, as well, including the Hopkinsville Art Guild, Grace and Mercy, Pennyroyal Hospice and the Child Advocacy Center.
“I was so excited to come to Hopkinsville … and the first invitation I got anywhere was to Ann Ruby McCoy’s house for a League of Women Voters luncheon,” Self said.
“It’s the only thing I joined for several years because it was a daytime meeting and I could go in the daytime without leaving my children at night,” she said.
After the award was presented, the members voted to make Self a lifetime member who does not pay dues to the league. No one currently in the Hopkinsville league has been a member longer than Self has, Chambers later told Hoptown Chronicle.
In other matters at Monday’s meeting, the members approved a new slate of officers. They will include Chambers and Mona Sheth as co-presidents and April Cotthoff as vice president.
The group discussed possible topics for community forums in the next several months, including housing, Medicaid eligibility, rights for exonerated felons and voter education about nonpartisan races.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
