Past Janet Clemmons Award recipients
2012: Stephen Bernat
2011: Christine Birhanzl
2010: Bill Fugate
2009: Bill Teets
2008: Joel Fink
2007: Jeanene Cotton
2006: Roy and Pat Ickes
2005: Thomas Fritsch
2004: Carla and Bobby Rice
2003: Roscoe Riddell
2002: Linda Kimble
2001: Bobbie Chapman
2000: Robert "Sonny" Hill
1999: Iris Abbott
1998: Nancy Caudill
1997: Janet Clemmons
Other 2013 SELF Award winners
• Butler Tech was chosen for the “Outstanding Partner of the Year” for its support of SELF throughout the year, from sponsoring families for the Holiday Adopt-A-Family program and gift wrapping help to baking thousands of cookies for Group Workcamps to teaching SELF clients additional skills and certifications that they need to find new or better paying jobs.
• Vora Tech, Ascendum and AIMS were recognized as the “Agency Angel,” an award that is decided on by the SELF staff to honor an individual or business who makes a strong impact on its clientele. The Vora Tech Group helped re-launch SELF’s JOBS NOW! employment program and workshop classes are taught by business professionals from Ascendum & AIMS and held at Vora Tech Park in Hamilton.
• Linda Centers of Trenton, Client of the Year Award, a JOBS NOW! graduate, found a full-time job after being laid off from a full-time and part-time job in 2009.
• Nick Kindberg of West Chester Twp., Client of the Year Award, a JOBS NOW! and Getting Ahead graduate, found a better paying full-time job. He has also worked to get insurance for his young son, got his driver’s license back and is saving for an apartment of his own.
• Pamela Middlebrook of Hamilton, Client of the Year Award, a Microenterprise and Microloan graduate started Such as This & That gift baskets with a $3,500 microloan from the program and her business is booming and expanding into gift bags for conventions and retreats.
• Tracey Reavis of Hamilton, Client of the Year Award, has been enrolled in 4 of SELF’s 5 self-sufficiency programs. She is working full-time and saving to purchase a home through the IDA program, which matches her savings 2:1.
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After two careers, one in the U.S. Navy and a second in the San Diego Police Department, Butch Hubble thought it might be a good idea to come back to his hometown so he could “watch the grass grow and play golf with my buddies.”
He came back home, but resting and golf were not as much on the agenda as he had planned, much to the benefit of the city.
At first, he lived in the family home on Hanover Street on the city’s East Side.
“I saw that there were so many things that needed to be done, that needed to be addressed,” he said. “When I left (in 1962), Hamilton was one of the leading industrial cities in the world. Now much of the community is waiting on government assistance to survive and there’s just something wrong with that practice.”
So with a core group of like-minded individuals, Hubble founded the Hamilton Community Council in 2004.
For his leadership of the council, Hubble has received SELF’s 2013 Janet Clemmons Community Service Award, selected by a committee of former and current SELF board members for the award.
“Butch is a special individual who cares about others and making a difference in their lives and in his community,” said nominator Nancy Wiley, a member of the Hamilton Vision Commission.
“Butch ‘Humble Hubble’ is the definition of the Janet Clemmons mission,” said Tina Jones, a member of the Hamilton Community Council, who also nominated him for the honor.
Hubble said the council is purely a “grass-roots group” that tries to serve the community, but not by giving people money.
“We don’t want people coming to us for the wrong reasons,” he said. “If you’re not there to give and make sure that your friends are doing as well as you are, then you’re not part of the Hamilton Community Council.”
“I can’t handle America’s attraction to negativity, so what we try to do is dwell on the positive,” he said. “We want to bring smiles and happiness to the community.”
Jeffrey Diver, executive director of SELF (Supports to Encourage Low-Income Families), said that he first met Hubble while doing some community organizing work in the Second Ward.
“We spent a lot of time together and I found that we are kindred spirits,” Diver said, “people who have the ability to make change in their own communities.
“For the Janet Clemmons Award, each year we ask the community for nominations for individuals who have gone above and beyond to help low-income families, especially volunteers like Butch,” he said. “Janet helped found our organization and so many others that have had a real impact on the community.”
One of the first projects for Hubble and the Hamilton Community Council was the “Rock the Block” summer concert events at Bailey Square and Symmes Park, open mic events that drew hundreds of people.
“We never had one negative incident,” he said.
The Council has also been heavily involved in the CLEEN program (Comprehensive Litter Education and Enforcement Now), similar to a program he stared as a police officer in San Diego, using grant money to put off-duty undercover police on the street to write tickets for littering and dumping.
“If you clean your community, you increase community pride, crime goes down, businesses will grow, people will be happier and talk about the city in a positive way,” he said. “This is a tested concept and I saw it work in San Diego.”
“I reflect back on what my grandmother told me: If you clean your house, the roaches will go away,” Hubble said.
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