Ellen Lowe wasn’t expecting a crowd when she showed up to Asbury United Methodist Church in Sharptown, Maryland.
“Thank you. I think a lot of people knew this that I didn’t know,” Ellen said after being told she was a 2017 Jefferson Awards winner. “I’m looking around. Oh my goodness, thank you so much. It’s an honor and a privilege.”
Ellen, a lay leader, spends a lot of time at the church volunteering with children.
Ellen’s friend, Elise Adkins said of her, “Miss Ellen is kind of one of those people who gives everything that she can and doesn’t expect anything in return, ever. I mean she does like everything around here basically. There would be so much around here that wouldn’t have happened without her.”
“I love to work with the children,” Ellen said. “I know that it is important to be a good role model and I know that I want for them what they might not even know they want.”
Ellen is dedicated to her community – volunteering with Coastal Hospice, Eastern Shore Hospital Center and Camp Safe Harbor, a 3-day program designed to help grieving children with remembrance and resilience after the death of a loved one.
Another friend, Dorothy Dickerson, said of Ellen, “Some only have a gift to do this preaching like she does and extending her Christianity that she does in her preaching and talking. It only takes certain people to do that kind of work.”
It is the kind of work that makes everyone she meets feel loved.
“She’s just so loving and she’s willing to spread that love and that’s something that we need,” said Ellen’s friend Jessica Collins.
That’s why Ellen Lowe is a Jefferson Awards winner.
