Peggy Wampler, left, receives the 2021 AJGA Volunteer of the Year award from tournament chairman John Fairbanks Sunday at The Commons.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
Since retiring from Ameritech in 1995, Peggy Wampler has been filling a lot of her spare time by volunteering.
Wampler has spent countless hours volunteering at the Visitors Center and Columbus Regional hospital, and for the past nine summers, she’s volunteered at the American Junior Golf Association Tournament at Otter Creek.
Sunday night in a banquet at The Commons, Wampler was honored for her service. She won the Jim Dietz Volunteer of the Year Award for 2021.
“I’m not a golfer, but I thought it would be fun to go out and see another part of the world that I didn’t know anything about,” Wampler said. “It’s just really interesting, these young men and women. I love watching them.”
Wampler, 84, who moved to Columbus with her husband in 1961, is once again helping out with this week’s Circle K Junior Championship Hosted By Otter Creek. There is a Junior Am this morning and afternoon and a Junior Clinic at 1:30 p.m. today. The 54-hole tournament takes place Tuesday through Thursday.
Wampler joins previous Jim Dietz Volunteer of the Year Award winners Jerry Pennington (2015), John Carmichael (2016), Jim Turner (2017), Marty Lasure (2018), Freddie Wagner (2019) and Tom Heller (2020).
“She’s been a great volunteer for us,” tournament chairman John Fairbanks said. “The nice thing about Peggy is, anything you ask her to do that has something to do with our committee or taking volunteers out on the golf course, taking spotters out on the golf course, shuttling, she’ll do anything you ask her to do, and she’ll do it without us even asking. She just goes and does it. That’s a great volunteer.”
