PARIS – Rick Nero has received the 2002 Rotarian of the Year Award from the Oxford Hills Rotary Club. Along with the local honor, Nero was designated as a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, named for the founder of Rotary International.

This award is the club’s highest honor and is given to the member who has shown exemplary “service above self” to both the club and the community. This club was formed in 1983 and is represented by more than 60 men and women, representing many professions throughout the Oxford Hills region.

A committee composed of the past three Rotarians of the Year evaluates nominees using a variety of criteria including attendance, community involvement in and outside of Rotary, and committee and project involvement.

Nero has had perfect attendance since joining the club in 1996. He is a previous Paul Harris Fellow and has served as the Rotary chairman for May Day, Play Day for the past five years. He has participated in most of the club’s projects, including: delivering Thanksgiving and Easter baskets, transporting local nursing home patients to the concerts in the park, crew chief on the food trailer, annual lobster feed, chairman of the moonbounce committee, and the Rotary/Kiwanis auction.

He was instrumental in coordinating the club’s community service project this past year which entailed painting a grandstand at the fairgrounds. Nero also participated in Rotoplast in 2001, a project sponsored by Rotary that takes surgical services for the repair of cleft lips and palates to people who live in less fortunate countries.

Nero is a certified speech and language pathologist. He has a private practice, Cully’s Speech and Language Services as well as working per diem for Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice. He lives in Norway with his wife, Jen, son Josh and daughter Culiandra.

For more information about Rotary, contact President Paul Thornfeldt at 743-1838.