2005

Jefferson
Awards

The Central
Texas Board of Selectors has chosen Jodi Eileen Wright to receive a 2005

Jefferson
Award Medallion.

Orphaned at
the age of twelve, she was sent to live with relatives in the small
Central Texas
community of Kosse.  It was
in this town of 500 people that she began her volunteer work. 
She still lives in Kosse and volunteers there.

She started
helping others by doing yard work or cleaning houses for the elderly and
widowed.  In her twenties,
she put in a Laundromat and washed and ironed clothes for those who were
unable to do it themselves. 

Jodi recently
wrote in a speech, “I love people. I love people so much…each is so
interestingly unique.”  In
the same speech she talked about a German bicyclist she befriended more
than 20 years ago.  The man
just appeared in her Laundromat.  She
asked if he needed help?  He
asked permission to stay inside the building as it was cold outside. 
Jodi opened her heated office, went home, cooked dinner and along
with her children, took dinner to the stranger. 
She recalls, “we had the greatest time. 
He was telling us about his bicycle and how he went to several
different junk yards to get parts to build it.” 
He explained how he’d come from
Germany
by boat and was cycling across the
w:st="on">
United States

in six months.  All Jodi
asked was that he write a letter to let her know he made it back home. 
Wolfgang’s letter arrived sharing with Jodi and her family,
“…so many cars, the cows with real long horns and it was a looong
way across w:st="on">

Texas

.”

A couple of
years later when another European cyclist rolled through Kosse Jodi was
called on to greet him.  Perhaps
these chance meetings are the genesis for Jodi’s latest project,
w:st="on">
Kosse

City
w:st="on">
Park

Restoration Project with its trails, paths, gazebo and restrooms.

She arranges
grounds keeping and occasionally does it herself. 
Like the time she was seen painting the wooden fence along
Kosse’s
w:st="on">
Main Street

. 

While raising
teenagers and working for the

Limestone

County

Senior Services, she prepared meals and encouraged social activities for
senior adults.  She helped
organize “Kosse Kids”, a program designed to provide wholesome
activities for the town’s young people. 
One such activity that has become an annual event is the
door-to-door Food For Needy campaign. 
Jodi felt it was important for youngsters to go door-to-door
collecting food because so many elderly want to give but can’t get
out.  Jodi’s son writes,
“she would load my sister and I into the back of the truck, gather up
all our friends and take us to knock on doors. 
Along the way not only did we collect food, but we always
collected a few more kids in need of something to do. 
We were all so proud of how much food we had at the end of the
day.  Last year, I helped her
carry a new generation of kids on this campaign and they were just as
proud at the end of the day.”

Jodi is
involved in much more than food drives and park projects. 
Kosse Kids go on Easter Egg hunts, hayrides, play days, Christmas
programs and even visit Haunted Houses, 
all organized by Jodi. 

Another way
she serves the people of Kosse is by making and delivering gift baskets
to the elderly shut-in’s and nursing home residents. 
She calls them her “Senior Angels.”

Her
nomination letter best describes her numerous volunteer efforts, “When
a family nearly 30 miles away found themselves homeless after a fire,
she set up a fund for them at a local bank. 
At a Cowboy Revivia, she was a counselor, she’s the contact
person for the local Helping Hands, she’s the publicist for the
city-wide Easter pageant and she’s been a Sunday School Teacher,
Ladies Study Group Member, Choir Member and
w:st="on">
Vacation

Bible

School

Director for many years.   When
asked why she does all she does, she replied, ‘it’s because ALL
these people are my family, they helped raise me and this is my way of
thanking them for all they’ve done for me” 



Jodi Wright is being nominated, not for any specific act, but for all
she does for the people of Kosse. 

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