From left, Mayor Steve Barnett, Carolyn Williams and Franklin resident John Wales stand for a picture after awarding the Marty and Carolyn Williams Volunteer of the Year Award on Monday.
Submitted photos
After giving back for the last decade, a Franklin man was recognized for his service this week.
John Wales was named the Marty and Carolyn Williams Volunteer of the Year Award at the city council meeting on Monday. Mayor Steve Barnett said the city’s annual volunteer award is named after the Williams couple “for their commitment of time, energy and efforts they devoted (to) our Franklin community.”
Nominations for the award come in from the community and they are screened by a panel of impartial philanthropic leaders. Recipients receive a certificate, city-wide recognition and their name on a plaque in City Hall, Barnett said.
“Oftentimes, these efforts are quietly behind the scenes and go unnoticed,” Barnett said at Monday’s meeting. “The creation of this award is to ensure that those individuals working tirelessly to better our city are recognized.”
Wales was thankful and surprised to receive the honor. He said his family tricked him into attending the council meeting by telling him the city would be recognizing his son-in-law’s business.
“Like I told Carolyn last night … just (for) my name included on the same plaque as theirs is just phenomenal,” Wales said. “because those two are just amazing, amazing Franklin-ites so to speak.”
On the award application, respondents are asked what three words best describe the person they are nominating. For Wales, those three words were loyal, dedicated and hard-working.
Ken Kosky, executive director of Festival Country, nominated Wales for the award.
On the application, Kosky said Wales volunteers when others don’t, proactively reaches out to help others and embodies what the award is about.
“His only motivation is to make the city he loves an even better place,” he wrote on the application. “Like Marty and Carolyn, and the volunteers who have won the award named in their honor, John is a selfless, community-minded individual who is dedicated to the city.”
Wales’ leadership started on the Franklin school board in 2004. He believes in term limits, so he served two terms and left the board in 2012, he said. After that, he became a part of the school’s communication committee for several years, leaving approximately four years ago.
He was also appointed to the Franklin Development Corporation Board by then-mayor Joe McGuinness, served as a volunteer for his daughter’s child protection charity called Strive to Make an Impact, and is on the board of Warrior 110, a local nonprofit serving veterans with mental illnesses.
Currently, Wales serves as president of the Festival Country Board. He has been on the board for six years and this is his second time as president.
“I think, like most people, you just feel that if you can help others, you try to and you do that any way you can,” Wales said.
But Wales isn’t just known for volunteering, he is also known as a car guy. He plays a large role in organizing car shows for the Franklin community.
In 2009, he first organized the Remember Blake Dickus Car Show, which honored Blake and Chynna Dickus, who were murdered in 2006. The show was held for five years, ending in 2014. Over time, it grew into one of the largest shows in the state, he said.
Later, he was approached by Discover Downtown Franklin with the opportunity to run the cruise-ins at the Historic Artcraft Theatre and was approached shortly after to also organize shows for the parks department. He continued working on car events for 13 years until he retired from the activity this year, he said.
Other than cars, Wales is passionate about Franklin, referring to it as the best place to “live, work, play and love” in Indiana and probably the Midwest.
“Anything I can do to be a part of keeping Franklin growing and being just the wonderful place it is to have a family … I can’t tell you any aspect of Franklin that I don’t love, I think it’s just the best place to be,” he said.
As a veteran, Wales also cares about those who served the country and he wants to make sure they “are seen, heard and valued.”
He looks fondly back on a time when he was able to get recognition for two men who were three war veterans in the state. One was a medic from Franklin named Robert Hyatt, and the second was a man from southside Indianapolis named Virgil Hudnall.
Both were able to meet and talk, and their respective cities recognized them, Wales said. The attorney general’s office at the time awarded the men the Distinguished Hoosier Award and the governor also awarded them the Sagamore of the Wabash.
Hyatt was the father of a close friend of Wales. Although both Hyatt and the southside Indianapolis veteran have since passed away, Wales said the recognition changed Hyatt’s demeanor prior to his death and he was celebrated by many.
“The volunteerism that I do and that others like me do, just they pale in comparison to the great people like Mr. Robert Hyatt who just gave every inch of themselves to serve their communities and their country,” Wales said.
Despite the city honoring him Monday, Wales deflects the spotlight from himself and instead recognizes other volunteers doing similar work around the city.
“Our town, our city is such an amazing community, such a giving community. I’m not the only one, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who live in Franklin who help people on a daily basis,” Wales said.
“I just challenge everyone else to think about the blessings that we have from where we live and how can we keep that moving forward. How can we pay that forward to the next generation and the next generation? How can we continue to build Franklin, keeping it small but keeping it the community that we all love so much?”
