The Soldotna Award’s Celebration may have come to a close for this year, but there was something different about one of the awards that will last a lifetime.
The Soldotna Chamber of Commerce Commitment to Youth Award received a new title, and it’s in honor of a community legend.
According to executive director Maddy Olson, the title change was not a hard decision to make, and it was one that was made almost immediately.
“The award was originally the Commitment to Youth award. and it was a very devastating loss to our community to lose Dan Gensel,” said Olson.
The thought behind this title change was to name the award after someone who really worked to help all the children of the Peninsula. And this way, Coach Dan Gensel’s legacy gets to live on for generations to come.
“The Board of Directors talked about and decided that we would like to rename our Commitment to Youth Award to the Dan Gensel Commitment to Youth Award in honor of him and to recognize, you know, all of the incredible and hard work that he did, not only the Peninsulas youth, but really Alaska’s youth,” said Olson.
Olson calls him a community legend, and describes this as an incredible way to ensure that his legacy is continued on. So from now and into the future, the Dan Gensel Commitment to Youth Award will be handed out for years to come by the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce.
