KNOX — A longtime volunteer with the Knox Fire Company Auxiliary, an aid for the elderly, and a local Cub Scout den leader, Mary Sherman was honored by the New York State Office for the Aging on May 6 with an Outstanding Contribution by a Senior Award.

The award recognizes people who have served in their communities and improved others’ lives.

"I feel great," said Sherman this week about winning the award. "I'm always volunteering to help people....It makes you feel good."

Sherman, who  grew up in a rural community outside of Buffalo, said she learned to help others from her parents. "Whenever someone needed something, they were there to help," she said.

She has carried on the tradition with her own family. "My husband, myself, our three kids and their spouses, and our grandkids, they all volunteer at something," said Sherman.

Sherman, who moved to Albany County in 1969, has worked on her family farm in Knox, as a medical lab technician at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, at the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance, as a graphic-arts designer and typesetter at The Altamont Enterprise, as a deli clerk at Price Chopper, and as a postmaster replacement for the United States Postal Service.

For more than 40 years, Sherman has volunteered in various capacities, including the preparation of care packages for people from the Hilltowns serving in the military. She began serving with the Knox Fire Company Auxiliary in 1973.

Sherman also helps a 92-year-old woman who lives alone. She schedules her appointments and drives her out to have fun or shop for groceries.

The urge to give her time came when Sherman’s son was in a Cub Scout den without a leader. She eventually had 22 Scouts in her den.

She has carried the scouting tradition of doing good turns for others forward to a new generation. She and her husband have helped their children get scouting's highest awards — with service projects as a centerpiece — and then helped three grandsons all become Eagle Scouts.

"Setting a good example is the most important thing," she said of inspiring others to do volunteer work.

— Marcello Iaia