By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
4-2-2009

It takes more than just dedication and hard work to keep a community healthy – it takes a good attitude, originality, resourcefulness and, most importantly, love for your community.
The Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce recognizes all those qualities in Healthy Communities of Southern Inyo Executive Director Charles James. That’s why James was selected as Lone Pine’s 2008 Volunteer of the Year.
In a presentation at a Lone Pine Chamber installation dinner on Jan. 13, the chamber presented James with a plaque, recognizing him for all of his hard work as one of Lone Pine’s most dedicated volunteers.

The decision to honor James, a resident of Big Pine, was “made by several board members of the Chamber of Commerce,” said Kathleen New, the Lone Pine Chamber’s executive director. “Although we do not have a criteria spelled out, we look at how the person gives to the community of Lone Pine.

And anyone would be hard-pressed to find someone who gives more of his time and of himself to Southern Inyo.

For James, balancing his downtime as a volunteer and his job as the Healthy Communities executive director is just another aspect of his job.
“It’s kind  of hard to tell where one ends and the other begins,” he said. “It would be too hard to define the job as a 40-hour-a-week job. A lot of what I do, I come into contact with so many people and I can’t not care about what their interests are.”
Because he possesses that kind of mentality when it comes to his job and his community, James has been very successful bringing different groups and organizations together to cohost and sponsor events that provide community services, good times and/or health benefits to the community.
According to New, “this year (James) was selected (as Volunteer of the Year) because he has participated as a volunteer for every event we held in 2008. He works with the local kids getting them involved in serving the community.”James works feverishly with Healthy Communities to establish programs and events that bring families and the community as a whole together.
But his work doesn’t end there – he is also a steady volunteer with the Lone Pine Chamber, a member of the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group, a regular contributor to The Inyo Register and The Territorial Review and so much more.

Charles James and Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kathleen New at the January chamber installation dinner where James was named the 2008 “Volunteer of the Year.” Photo courtesy Lone Pine Chamber