2014 Col. Bill Lambert Award
Former mayor and longtime Nevada City community leader Reinette Senum has been selected as the 2014 recipient of the 25th Annual Col. William H. “Bill” Lambert Award.
The prestigious Lambert Award award is presented annually by the Famous Marching Presidents of Nevada City to recognize outstanding contributions to Nevada City and the Nevada City way of life. The award is named in honor of the late Col. William H. Lambert, founder of Nevada City’s annual Constitution Day Parade.
The Marching Presidents announce the award each year on the eve of the annual parade, in which they participate. This year’s 48th Annual Constitution Day Parade rolls down Broad Street beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14.
“I’ve had the great pleasure of knowing Reinette for many years and she still finds ways to amaze me,” said Marching Presidents founder David Parker, who will present the award at the Marching Presidents post-parade awards banquet at Miners Foundry.
“Her list of community accomplishments is long and growing longer each year. She has helped transform our historic community in ways that have put Nevada City on the cutting edge of the 21st Century,” he said. “The Famous Marching Presidents are proud to honor Reinette with our 25th annual Lambert Award.”
Senum is a 1984 Nevada Union HS graduate who went on to travel widely, visiting some 50 countries, and to become the first women to walk and ski solo across Alaska. She studied film in Southern California before returning to Nevada City in 2004.
She co-founded the Alliance for a Post Petroleum Local Economy (APPLE) and Power Up-NC before being elected to a four-year term on the City Council in 2008. She served as mayor in 2010.
She’s a co-founder and former manager of the Nevada City Farmers Market and advocate of the Commercial Street Boardwalk, its acoustic Thursdays and Farm to Table events.
“I’m tickled. This is wonderful,” she said when informed of her award selection. “It’s so nice to be appreciated, especially in a town with so many amazing volunteers.”
Past Lambert Award recipients are retired city manager Beryl P. Robinson Jr., former mayor and city clerk Cathy Wilcox-Barnes, longtime parade organizers George and Pat Harper, city councilman and former mayor Pat Dyer, the late real estate broker Jim Mackey, local writer Dave Carter, Chamber of Commerce executive manager Cathy Whittlesey, former mayor Steve Cottrell, businessman Bob Buhlis, retired Nevada County general services director Dennis Cassella, John Christensen, a leader of community efforts to establish the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum; cartoonist R.L. “Crabman” Crabb, business owners Lee and Susan Thurston, Nevada City public works director Verne Taylor, the late historian Edwin Tyson, the late folksinger/activist U Utah Phillips, city engineer Bill Falconi, Marching Presidents organizer Patti Foster, retired school administrator Karen Chizek, musician Mikail Graham. retired county librarian Madelyn Helling, local builder Gary Tintle and former mayor Paul Matson. Marching Presidents founder David Parker was presented the group’s 20th anniversary award.
The Marching Presidents is a fun-loving and educational group that portrays all 44 U.S. Presidents with reverence, good humor and varying degrees of historical accuracy. For reliable information on U.S. Presidents, see www.americanpresident.org.
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