Six locals are among the awardees of this year’s Golden Shovel Awards, given to those good samaritans who helped neighbors shovel out of snow this winter.
Bethesda’s Bruce Bishop, Tim Tehan and Kurt Zimmerman, Chevy Chase’s Chris Hersman and Cheryl Leanza and Glen Echo’s Mark Springuel were all named winners of the award on Monday.
The honor is given out each year by Councilmember Nancy Floreen as a way to highlight and encourage clearing snow off sidewalks and driveways.
Floreen will present the awards during the April 21 Council session. According to the county’s Department of Transportation, southern Montgomery County saw 34.4 inches of snow over the 2014-2015 winter season. There were also 20 days on which the high temperature never hit more than 30 degrees.
Floreen’s office got 97 nominations for the awards this year. She selected 20, including Bishop who shoveled the sidewalks in front of six other houses on Cheshire Drive.
Hersman got 10 nominations for the award after he worked in the dark with a snowblower on neighbors’ sidewalks and driveways. Leanza shoveled several blocks on Grubb Road near an elementary school.
Springuel, who has a developmental disability, routinely shoved his elderly neighbor’s driveway and sidewalk. Tehan did the same for his neighbors on Snow Point Drive and Zimmerman cleared sidewalks in his neighborhood so children could better access bus stops.
