For Bow resident Ollie Lafond, her years spent volunteering with AARP’s driver safety program has paid off, as she was recently presented with the Andrus Award for Community Service.

This is AARP’s most prestigious volunteer award and is presented to one person in every state each year.

According to Lafond, she has volunteered with AARP’s driver safety program for 12 years, starting out as an instructor and moving up the ranks to state coordinator.

When she decided to volunteer her time with the program, she had just retired from her job with a telephone company.

“I said to my husband one day, ‘I love being retired, but the world still needs me!’” she said. After that, she saw a volunteer recruitment ad in an AARP magazine looking for driver safety instructors.

The program is an eighthour course taught over two days and is the nation’s largest refresher course for drivers 50 and older.

“It’s such a valuable program,” said Lafond. “When it comes time for many people to take the road test again (at age 75), they want to feel comfortable doing it.

“Our driving is our independence, because we don’t have a lot of public transportation.”

Lafond is also a member of the Retired Telephone Pioneers of America, a community service group that has done much work with disabled individuals.

And most recently, Lafond has begun volunteering some time serving breakfast at The Friendly Kitchen in Concord. “Anything we can do to give back to the community is so important,” said Lafond. “We just need to take time to say, ‘Thank you God,’ and give back a little bit.”

“We’re thrilled to bestow upon Ollie Lafond our most celebrated volunteer award given by AARP,” said AARP New Hampshire state director Kelly Clark. “Ollie has spent an incredible amount of time and energy helping people and is very deserving of this award.”

The award recognizes outstanding AARP volunteers who make a difference in their communities in ways that are consistent with AARP’s mission, vision and strategic direction. For more information about the AARP driver safety program, visit www.aarp.org/drive.