The Orlando Hamcation® has announced the winners of this year’s Carole Perry Educator of the Year award and the new Gordon West Ambassador of the Year award.
The 2023 Carole Perry award is being shared by Ken Lyons, KN4MDJ, and Jim Storms, AB8YK. While neither one is a professional educator, both have helped develop the next generation of hams and ham radio leaders. According to the award committee, Lyons is deeply involved in educating youth about radio through the Scouting program, regularly organizing and coordinating events that introduce amateur radio to more than 1000 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts each year. Storms is co-founder and current team leader of the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure, a program that hosts young hams and their parents in Costa Rica each summer to “be the DX” – at no cost to the participants. Many of the previous attendees are already demonstrating leadership in the hobby.
John Bigley, N7UR, has the honor of being the first recipient of the Gordon West award, presented to “an individual who represents and inspires others, embodies the amateur radio spirit, and has made outstanding contributions to the amateur radio community.” Bigley is the creator of a one-day “boot camp” program for prospective amateurs and supports group activities and licensing classes, appearing in various alter egos, including Professor Elmer Sparkgap, Captain Coax and Jordon West (Gordon’s long-lost twin). He also hosts a weekly radio program about amateur radio and shortwave, and serves as the ARRL Nevada Section Manager.
Both awards will be presented at next month’s Orlando Hamcation. (Full disclosure: CQ Editor W2VU serves on the Carole Perry award judging committee.)
