The Greater Bandon Association has named the March recipient of its Volunteer of the Month award. Bill Russell becomes the fifth winner of the new award. He was presented the award in the form of a plaque and a gift certificate donated by Billy Smoothboars at the March 7 meeting of Bandon’s City Council.

William (Bill) Russell has been a long time contributor to the Bandon community. He has served as a volunteer on many non-profit boards such as Shoreline Education for Awareness, Cyberlynx, BandonPrepares and BandonCares. In many cases, he has founded these organizations and was instrumental in them acquiring their 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization status from the Internal Revenue Service.

Bill was a founding member of Shoreline Education for Awareness (SEA) and served as their President for 10 years. Bill also spends time each month teaching computer literacy classes as a volunteer and president of CyberLynx in partnership with Bandon Library. He is also been a steering committee member of BandonCares since its founding in 2008. He formed BandonPrepares as well, a non-profit organization carrying out disaster preparedness activities for the City.

Bill approaches his volunteer work with passion and zeal. Currently, you will often find Bill moving forward the work of Bandon’s Masonic Lodge.

The Greater Bandon Association will be honoring one of Bandon’s many volunteers that are making a difference in the community each month. Nominations for the April award should be e-mailed to julie@greaterbandon.org or mailed to P.O. Box 161 by close of business on March 31, 2016.