Marida Fogle is an outreach associate for the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia, Missouri. Every day, she delivers books to patrons at senior living facilities.

“I talk to my patrons, find out what they want the next month, how they’re doing, then I bring it all back and unload it, get ready for the next day,” she says.

Fogle says she doesn’t take library services for granted.

“When I was growing up, I lived in a neighborhood in Kansas City that didn’t have a lot of resources,” she says. “The library was there for me when I didn’t have a lot of resources, and now I’m helping bring it to people who don’t have very much.”

Fogle’s co-workers have noticed how much she cares.

Stephanie Markin, also an outreach associate, says Fogle has “enormous drive and works harder than anybody I know.”

“She is very much appreciated, and if you talk to any of her patrons, any of her co-workers, she just exemplifies what we all strive to be,” Markin says.

For her service to her community, Fogle, a member of AFSCME Local 3311 (Council 61) is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award. The award recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Fogle says she is motivated to serve because she knows she is making a difference for people who can “no longer get out and about very well.” She knows being there for them is one way that “keeps them connected to the community.”

“What gets me out of bed in the morning is knowing that I’m going to be helping my community,” she says.