SALISBURY, MD—The Salisbury Jaycees recently presented three chapter members with its Exhausted Rooster Award, marking their “aging out” of the organization.
They included Jess Kling of Delmar, MD; Jason Rhodes of Millsboro, DE; and Don Rutledge of Salisbury. Two other members, Cory Copeland of Richmond, VA, and Joanne Fisher of Easton, MD, also were recognized for their final years as Jaycees. Combined, they represent more than 45 years of membership.
The presentation was the culmination of a roast held in their honor during the chapter’s annual Past Presidents Night at Boxcar40 in Pittsville, MD.
The Exhausted Rooster Award — a play on the term “exalted ruler” — is given to Jaycees when they surpass the international organization’s membership age limit of 40.
Kling, immediate past president of the Maryland Jaycees and current chair of its board of directors, joined the Salisbury Jaycees in 2011. The 2012 John Culver Salisbury Jaycee of the Year became one of only two two-time presidents in chapter history, accepting that role in 2013 and 2016. During both years she led the chapter to Henry S. Giessenbier Awards, presented to the Maryland Jaycees chapter of the year.
She served six years on the Salisbury Jaycees board of directors and five on the Maryland Jaycees board. Earlier this year, she was recognized as the Clayton Frost Memorial Award, designating her as the state Jaycees president of the year by the Jaycees’ national parent organization, JCI USA, for her work in 2018. In addition, she has represented the Maryland Jaycees at eight JCI USA conventions and currently serves as the Top Outstanding Young Americans program manager for the national organization.
Kling represented JCI USA at the JCI World Congress, the largest annual gathering of international Jaycees, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 2016. She also earned additional multiple chapter and state awards, including two for New Project of the Year (the chapter’s Happy Hoppy Day brewery tour in 2012 and Be the Match national bone marrow donor registration drive in 2016). She also has been named the John Jacob Jr. Executive Board Member of the Year (2012) and Wayne Reichert Hidden Hero (2015).
In addition, Kling chaired several other projects for the chapter, including its 3rd Friday beer sales and Wicomico County Fair concessions, and for many years served as its Wicomico County Relay For Life and Village of Hope Great Clue Caper team captain. She has earned the highest honors presented by the Maryland Jaycees (Militia member) and the Jaycees’ international parent organization, JCI (Senator), granting her lifetime membership in each respective entity. She also is a 10th-degree Jaycee in the JCI USA Passport to Leadership program.
Joining the Jaycees in 2004, Rhodes attended more than 1,400 local, state, national and international Jaycees meetings and projects in 15 years as a chapter member. A two-time recipient of the John Culver Salisbury Jaycee of the Year Award (2005 and 2017), he also has been named Maryland Jaycee of the Year and earned the JCI USA Wayne McCall Memorial Award, designating him one of the nation’s most outstanding Jaycees.
Rhodes served eight years on the Salisbury Jaycees board of directors and three on the Maryland Jaycees board. He chaired or co-chaired 53 Jaycees projects, including many recognized with awards from the Maryland Jaycees and two selected for national awards by JCI USA: Salisbury’s 275th anniversary celebration (Management Project of the Year — Public Relations, 2007), and the chapter’s annual Murder Mystery Night event (Individual Development Project of the Year — Membership Recruitment and Retention, third place, 2008), for which he wrote the script for 12 years.
He founded many of the chapter’s most notable annual projects, including its Treat Street safe Halloween trick-or-treating initiative, Read Across America celebration, Soft Shell Metric Century bicycle tour fundraiser (2008-2016), Salisbury Super Soapbox Spectacular soapbox derby (with St. Francis de Sales Boy Scout Troop 185 Scoutmaster Tom Taylor) and adaptive Easter egg hunt for children with physical and cognitive disabilities.
A 10th-degree Jaycee in the JCI USA Passport to Leadership program, he originated the chapter’s mascot, Saul the Salisbury Jaycees Bear, and created its current logo, which since has been adopted by the Maryland Jaycees and other local chapters. He also captained the chapter’s Greene Turtle “Let’s Do Trivia” team for nearly nine years.
At the state level, he was a Maryland Jaycees champion in several individual development competition categories, including Speak-Up (oratorical) and debate, and was a national finalist in the Write-Up (writing) and Brownfield (job interview) programs. In 2011, he authored and co-sponsored a bylaw change lowering the minimum age for Jaycees in Maryland from 21 to 18.
He also served as the chapter’s public relations liaison from 2005-2019 and wrote two national public service announcements for JCI USA. The Maryland Jaycees’ State Director of the Quarter/Year award was named in his honor in 2008.
Rhodes represented the state organization at four JCI USA conventions and, with Kling, served as a JCI USA delegate to the JCI World Congress in 2016. He holds lifetime Jaycees memberships at the state, national and international levels as a Maryland Jaycee Militia member, JCI USA Ambassador and JCI Senator. He joined the Salisbury Jaycees Foundation board of directors in 2017, currently serving as president.
Rutledge joined the Jaycees in 2013. During the past six years, he has chaired or co-chaired multiple projects, including the Salisbury Christmas Parade and Jaycees concessions at Wicomico County’s former Pork in the Park barbecue festival. He earned the chapter’s 2014 Project of the Year Award for overseeing the Soft Shell Metric Century (with co-chair Debbie Oland), 2016 Wayne Reichert Hidden Hero Award and John Armbruster Award for most active veteran member in 2017 and 2018.
He also served on the Salisbury Jaycees board of directors from 2014-2016 as secretary, treasurer and director, respectively. His Jaycees membership continues through March.
Copeland, who moved from Delmar, MD, earlier this month, joined the Jaycees in 2015. During his tenure, he earned several of the chapter’s highest honors, including the 2016 William C. Brownfield and Gene Groton Memorial awards for most active and most enthusiastic first-year member, respectively; and the 2018 John Culver Jaycee of the Year Award.
In addition, with co-manager Tyler Harwood, he shared the chapter’s Project of the Year Award for 2018 for overseeing Jaycees concessions at the Wicomico County Fair. He also served as chapter secretary that year. His Jaycees membership continues through December.
Fisher joined the Jaycees in 2005, serving as an omnipresent volunteer with the organization for many years. She was elected chapter secretary for 2008 and coordinated events throughout her time in the Jaycees, including scavenger hunts and membership meeting activities. She also was a member of the chapter’s state champion Maryland Jaycees debate team in 2006.
In 2016, she served as first lady of the Maryland Jaycees during the tenure of her husband, Travis Fisher, as the state organization’s president. She also oversaw the party room during the chapter’s annual Children’s Christmas Shopping Tour for less fortunate kids for many years and helped build connections with area churches to keep the room staffed following her departure.
In addition, she was a member of the Jaycees’ Great Clue Caper road rally/scavenger hunt team for several years to benefit the Village of Hope transitional housing facility. The experience inspired her to create a similar event, the Talbot Treasure Hunt, in Talbot County to benefit the Diocese of Easton’s Crossreach youth and mission intiatives.
The Salisbury Jaycees is a community service, social and leadership training organization for men and women ages 18-40 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. For more information visit the chapter’s website at www.salisburyjc.com or Facebook page at www.facebook.com/salisburyjaycees.
