Former A Healthy Lynnfield Substance Use Prevention Coordinator Peg Sallade is the recipient of the 2024 Lynnfield Rotary Robert C. Wood Memorial Hero Award. Sallade received the award at an award ceremony for the recipients of the Robert C. Wood Hero Award for Rotary District 7930 at the Danversport Yacht Club last Thursday.
This award is presented to a person who has demonstrated outstanding service to our community, and neighbors. The award, formerly named the Unsung Hero Award, is named in the honor and memory of Wood, a longtime supporter of Rotary and a late past district governor.
“I am thrilled to have been nominated for this prestigious award by my Rotary colleagues. Lynnfield Rotary is a small, yet mighty organization that does a tremendous amount of community service work,” Sallade said. “It is an honor to have worked with them and to have served the community of Lynnfield.”
Sallade is a certified prevention specialist who resides in Wakefield. Her career in Public Health began more than 30 years ago, but most recently, she spent five-plus years building the Town of Lynnfield’s Substance Use Prevention Coalition known as A Healthy Lynnfield. In her early days in Lynnfield, she secured federal funding for the organization’s first five years through Drug Free Communities and Partnership For Success grants to get the program off the ground. She recruited volunteers from various sectors across the community and worked tirelessly to foster community collaboration efforts to prevent and reduce substance use and misuse. She has been instrumental in starting A Healthy Lynnfield youth councils at both Lynnfield Middle School and Lynnfield High School, bringing evidence-based parent education to the community, and ensuring Lynnfield is collecting pertinent data and adjusting priorities accordingly.
Prior to retiring this fall, Peg once again hit a home run, securing another five years of Drug Free Communities funding and four years of STOP ACT grant funding, focused on underage alcohol use. In all of the communities Peg has worked in over the years, she has been the leader in making substance use prevention a top priority.
In commemoration of the award, Sallade received a pin, certificate and the Paul Harris Award medal. The Wood award is the highest in Rotary. Paul Harris is the founder of Rotary. The Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation. A contribution to the Rotary Foundation has been made in Sallade’s name.
The Paul Harris recipient goes above and beyond in serving Rotary’s communities in a true demonstration of the Rotary motto – “Service Above Self.” Each of the 47 communities in the district had the opportunity to submit their nominees for recognition.
