The Bob Award
Robert (Bob) McClelland faithfully served his community for more than 35 years as a Community Supervisor for Baltimore County Recreation and Parks. After his retirement, Bob continued to serve as a volunteer on a variety of councils and non-profits. He was most proud of serving as one of the founding board members for Empower4Life alongside his dear friend, Jen Barrett Cox, who he loved like one of his own children.
Our team honors Bob and his immeasurable contributions with the Bob McClelland Beautiful Soul Award, established in 2019 and presented to a deserving volunteer who demonstrates dedication, joy, and compassion.
Each year, the recipient is announced at our Little Kids, Big Dreams gala in October.
Award Recipients
2022 | Meredith Kilgore
In 2017, after hearing her voice and feeling her energy, Jen promptly had Meredith begin teaching POUND, a workout inspired by playing the drums, to the kids at our partner shelters. The kids LOVED it and they LOVED her! After realizing her line of work was in marketing, Meredith has become an even more of an instrumental part of E4L dedicating hours creating, generating, scheduling, posting, and engaging our audience through social media, emails, events, and our website even after she moved away from Maryland. Her teaching impacted one of our adult volunteers so much that when she found out this person was moving, that volunteer went and got her POUND certification to keep POUND alive for the children we support. This woman is one of a kind and MOST deserving of the 2022 Bob McClelland ‘Beautiful Soul’ award.
2021 | Brice Dobry
In 2018, Brice came to Jen and said “Jen, I really want to use my skills to help you, to help Empower”. Since that time, he has single handedly changed the way we operate, the way we attack a project and MOST IMPORTANTLY the scope of impact we have been able to have on vulnerable children in our community.
The work Brice has done to take manual labor off of Jen’s plate, allows her to devote that time to expanding our educational programs, giving presentations to various groups/businesses, or filling a need that otherwise may have been overlooked. Brice literally never says no and has ABSOLUTELY no clue the impact he has had on our organization! Brice is the perfect fit for the 2021 Bob McClelland ‘Beautiful Soul’ award and we could not be more grateful to him for ALL he has done for us!
2019 | Lauren o’Connor
For over two years, Lauren has displayed incredible dedication, commitment, and love to Empower4Life and all the children that we support. Twice a month, she joins us at Sarah’s Hope where you can often find Lauren reading a book to a child, talking to them about their goals and dreams, or helping them pick out a healthy snack before we go. The children adore her AND they look up to her. Over her last semester in school, Lauren organized a book drive with her classmates and donated over 700 books to Empower4Life. We use these books now and moving forward as prizes the children can earn after our educational programs. Lauren has been such an asset to our organization and is most deserving of the 2019 Bob McClelland ‘Beautiful Soul’ award.