2 weeks Ago By By YVONNE MINTZ
You can find her at an An gleton football game or leading children across the streets as a Brazosport ISD crossing guard. You’ll definitely see her supporting Republican candidates — after they have withstood her tough questioning. She will stand up for law enforcement through her work with the Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association, and she’ll promote understanding of the judicial system every chance she gets.
Heck, she has a Texas Supreme Court justice’s cellphone number, and when she asked him to speak at a convention, he came, even though it was a particularly busy time on the bench. On Friday, Elizabeth Day was at The Facts, receiving her award as this year’s Citizen of the Year. Her friends and supporters turned out in large numbers, with one couple driving in from Weatherford, more than five hours away.
Day lives in Angleton, but her support for organizations and people spans the entire state of Texas. Chances are you know her or know people who do. That was true of all of our honorees this week.
Our Citizen of the Year finalists for 2024 are Randy Gilbert and Gina Aguirre Adams. Unsung Heroes are Traci Holt Delesandri, James Jones, Jessica Truscott and the Rev. Melvin and Sheena Johnson.
All but Gilbert and Adams, who were unable to make it to the event, joined us Friday in a reception that looked a lot different than the luncheon that had been our tradition for more than 20 years. Hurricane Beryl damaged the Doris Williams Civic Center in Lake Jackson, where we had planned to have the event, so that made it impossible to have it there. Truth be told, the event is a significant expense that has grown to draw hundreds of people, and with our own damage from Hurricane Beryl, it was the best financial decision to switch gears this year.
Sometimes the curveballs we are thrown cause us to correct course and break from tradition, and in this case, it was a good thing. What we hosted instead — a small, intimate breakfast reception at the paper with the honorees and their chosen families — was a big hit. I missed seeing some of our friends who join us every year, but this year’s reception had its own charm.
Our staff and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to sit and visit with the people we honored, rather than reading speeches about them from a podium and playing hostess to a large crowd. Sheena Johnson and I shared about our high school senior sons and their college aspirations, I talked volunteer firefighting with Jones, and I met Truscott, with whom I shared a meaningful conversation about her work with the Brazoria County Pride organization. Our honorees, as always, represent a wide swath of Brazoria County geographically but also by ethnicity and age.
We don’t find these folks on our own. We have our readers to thank. You submit nominations every year, and you always choose well.
If you haven’t read about this year’s honorees in Brazos Monthly yet, be sure to check it out at thefacts.com/magazines . The Citizen of the Year celebration looked different this year, but at its root, it was the same.
We put a spotlight on the works of people who generally stay under the radar. The good things they do for their communities can go unnoticed, but they deserve to be celebrated..
