Lisa Clifton Wins 2014 Robert Moore Award
The West Linn City Council awarded amazing volunteer and gardener extraordinaire Lisa Clifton with the 2014 Robert Moore Award.
The award was created by the West Linn City Council in 2013 to recognize individuals who contribute to the quality of life in the community without reward or recognition.
Named after the founder of West Linn, Robert Moore, the award commemorates Moore’s selfless decision to name the town he founded after his friend and mentor, Dr. Lewis Linn. Because of people like Robert Moore and the recipients of the Robert Moore Award, West Linn is the wonderful community it is today.
This fall, the city received 37 nominations for 15 people for the 2014 award. Thirteen of those nominations were for the same person. Key phrases kept popping up in those nominations: dedication, community and volunteer. That person was Lisa Clifton.
Clifton manages and runs the Robinwood Community Garden, which she helped launch in 2011, helping to build garden beds and not only grow produce, but grow community. The garden is located at the Robinwood Station Community Center, 3706 Cedaroak Drive, which opened in 2010. The garden is not only a place for people to tend a garden, but they also offer classes for children and adults.
A nomination from Elizabeth Hayes states, “Lisa works harder than anyone I know. She has helped to establish a greater sense of community in West Linn. She is central to the functioning of the Robinwood Garden as a safe, healthy place to grow food and friendship. She has always insisted that a portion of the garden's crop go directly to the West Linn Food Pantry to help those in greater need.”
Another nominator, Nicole Alexander, said, “I had never tried kale before joining the garden and being around Lisa. Because of Lisa's patience and kindness, my not-quite-6 year old daughter now knows how to plant vegetables from seed, thin them and knows when they are ready to be harvested.”
Mayor John Kovash presented Clifton with an engraved clock and the council thanked her for her service.
Clifton, acknowledged not only her family, but her partners at the Robinwood Community Garden.
“The garden is an amazing place,” she said. “I hope you all get a chance to come there. It is a community-building spot. ... I’m so honored to be up here and to be given this award.”
Clifton then shared her favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quote, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
The Robert Moore Award is proof that Clifton lives by that quote and is a fine example of community spirit. Congratulations, Lisa Clifton, for being named the 2014 Robert Moore Award winner. And, thank you for your dedication to serve the community of West Linn and help make it a better place!
