Ephrata Alumni Association

Michael Boland

Ephrata High School class of 1973

Nominator: Erin Boland - Ephrata High School class of 2008

I nominate my father Mike Boland to be considered for the Community Service Award being offered by the EHS-100 Reunion committee.

My father was born and raised in Ephrata; only left home to earn his college degree before returning to work at Grant County Public Utility District. Throughout his life he has been dedicated to serving this community and its needs. This man never has run for a public office, or held a position of power in the community, but he is a man ready to help and serve wherever needed. While he reminds me, as his daughter, every day that he’s going to “pack up and move some day” (and not give me a forwarding address), for my sake and for Ephrata’s sake we should both hope this man never puts his money where his mouth is. This is home and he dearly loves this community.

When he was finished with college in 1977 he came back to work for the PUD with many of his old classmates and friends. At some point my father and many of the great men and women in this town (if I could name them all I would do so properly) decided an ambulance service was needed. In the late 70s early 80s they created the first fully running volunteer ambulance service for Ephrata. Without ever thinking about compensation, he considered this a duty to the people he loved, his community, his hometown. Countless times he recounted stories of happiness and also misfortune during his time while volunteering for the ambulance service. Whatever the outcome was he enjoyed giving back to his community.

While no longer a volunteer for the ambulance service he still volunteers his time being involved in the Lions Club where he has been a member for many decades. Frequently I remember growing up tagging along to “White Cane Day” at Safeway (before Moore Furniture moved in). During the summer months when Grant County Fair comes along we mark Tuesday/Wednesday6 off on our calendars “not play” my dad would say, but because my dad has always been on the burger grill master with his best buddy Dave Ebberson in the yellow Lion’s Booth (not the one that sells space burgers). Both my mother and father taught me the joy of volunteering through events like these. At one point I remember asking my father where all the money we made went. Weeks later my dad took me to an elderly gentleman’s house where he was building a ramp because the man could not build one himself and could not see the steps when walking down them. I fell in love with volunteering after this.

When I decided I wanted to pole vault and high jump in high school like my father had he said he would be my coach; I thought that we could work together on the weekends when I didn’t have track meets but the next thing I knew he was taking time every other day off work to volunteer with anyone and everyone on my track team who wanted to high jump or pole vault. In every other volunteer activity he rarely, if ever, had to take time out of his work day but I know during those four years he took hours and hours away from his work time to dedicate towards Ephrata High School Athletics. I believe that there were more pole-vaulters in the four years that I was there that Ephrata had seen in a long time. More girls made it over 10 feet than ever before; I broke the school record for pole vault, the boys record was broken in pole vault and in high jump it was broken twice while my dad was there.

My dad has given countless hours to keep the lights on in the 30-plus years he has worked for the PUD. In the middle of the night when the power goes out countless times while everyone else is still sleeping that man gets out of bed and figures out a way to turn it back on. While my sister and I had ballet recitals, soccer games, or choir performances there were times he had to leave to fix a problem with a power outage. If your power ever went out while living in Ephrata you can bet my dad knew about it and already on his way to work, rain or shine, day or night; along with countless other men and women at the Grant County PUD. One night at Prom the power was not working so they called my father. The soccer field lights at the high school need replacing so they called my dad, the softball field lights needed replacing so they called my dad.

Countless times the phone rings and someone on the other end is looking for my dad’s help with something electrical or for help with anything they think he can do and my father won’t hesitate to help out.

I am proud of my father and all he has done for this community. I am proud of the family he and my mother worked hard to raise. My father is honorable in every way a community deserves a man to be. Someday I hope I have half the heart my father does for a community the way he so deeply cares and cherishes this one.