During an annual meeting held April 22, officials of the Lycoming County Historical Society honored Joni Decker, of Cogan Station, as Volunteer of the Year.
Decker has had a long history volunteering for the historical society. She first began as a docent in 1991, training under then-educator and later executive director Sandy Rife.
She served in this capacity for 10 years, before taking the plunge into substitute teaching at South Williamsport Area High School.
In 2010, Decker offered her services as a docent for school and adult tours, assisting with bulk mailings and the museum's annual Day Camp.
Soon thereafter, she asked if there were any other projects available. The historical society had received a very large donation of materials from the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, given to the society by that school's Alumni Association.
When it first came in, the collection filled two eight-foot tables, with boxes of photographs, uniforms, yearbooks, medical equipment, plaques, instruction manuals and notebooks, and even more photographs and uniforms.
Decker took on the task of wrangling this collection into a manageable form, organizing the hundreds of photographs into topics and time periods, sorting through the uniforms to ensure that every variety was represented, and getting everything into archival quality, acid-free boxes.
Because of her help processing the collection, the historical society was later able to have much of the collection digitized and put on the Lycoming County Women's History Collection online database.
Originally from Danville, Decker studied biology at Bloomsburg University and did graduate work at Bucknell University, Lewisburg. She moved to Lycoming County when she married her husband, Jay; they have two children and two young grandsons.
Other important business was conducted at the annual meeting including the passage of the 2012-13 budget, a review of the minutes from the previous year, and a re-election of the Board of Governors officers.
Officers include Martha Huddy, president; John Raymond, first vice president; Chuck Luppert, second vice president; Marc Pompeo, third vice pesident; Randall DiPalo, treasurer; and Sue Beidler, secretary.
Remaining members of the board include Dr. John Piper, Dr. Bonita Kolb, Sean Roman, Gina Campana, Gayle Whitesell, Jessica Williamson and Dewey Oakes.
Bob Kane Jr. provided an illustrated talk of little-known architectural gems in Williamsport. The event was held at the Genetti Hotel.
