Friends and former co-workers of Cindy Benedict gathered at Copper Still in downtown Noblesville after her last day as a City of Noblesville employee, Nov. 6, to celebrate and honor the work she has done for the community. From left, Denise Rezsonya, Pat and Francesca Mohan, Amy Shankland, Mike Hoffmeister, Denise Aschleman, Cindy Benedict, Mayor John Ditslear, Tracey Heaton and Andy Wert. (Photo by Sadie Hunter)

Commentary by Cindy Benedict

This will be my last column as the community engagement manager for the City of Noblesville. I have decided to focus full-time on bringing more mobility options to Hamilton County. By the time you read this, I’ll be working at Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority helping to create a workable transit plan for our county.

If you weren’t already proud of Noblesville, you have another reason to be so. Under Mayor John Ditslear, our city took a leadership position on transit more than one year ago. We acted as the convener of the Hamilton County Transit Forum – a large group of leaders exploring if mass transit made any sense for our county. This effort has tremendous support from Commissioner Christine Altman and Mayors Jim Brainard, Andy Cook and Scott Fadness. In fact, it requires full-time attention, and I felt called to move into that space. It is a long process, but rest assured the Forum will develop something that is effective and efficient for Hamilton County. You’ll be hearing more in the coming months, including public meetings on the Red and Green Lines in early 2016.

And now to you. I’ve had the privilege to introduce you to some remarkable volunteers and volunteer groups. These heroes range in ages, interests and abilities, but they all share one passion – to give back a little something to someone else. Now here is the amazing part – there are thousands of you out there! Every day you give back a little something to someone outside of your family. Every day someone is baking brownies for the bake sale, coaching the team, tutoring a struggling student, reading to a bedridden patient or working at a food pantry. It boggles my mind to remember how many good and decent folks are volunteering all the time, and they don’t get featured in the paper or win an award.

Kudos to you and thank you for all the ways you make Noblesville a great place to live. It is a better world with you in it!

Cindy Benedict was the community engagement manager for the City of Noblesville. She may be reached at [email protected].

More Headlines