By MATT BALDWIN  

Citizen of the Year:

The Citizen of the Year award was given to Mimi Beadles, founder of the Flathead Spay and Neuter Task Force.

“A decade ago, Mimi had a dream to make spay and neuter surgeries so affordable that it would dramatically reduce the number of dogs and cats euthanized at the county shelter every year,” said Flathead Beacon publisher Lance Fahrney, who presented the award.

Since she founded the Task Force a decade ago, more than 27,000 dogs and cats have been altered, and the euthanasia rate at the county shelter has dropped from 50 percent to less than 5 percent.

“With Mimi, it’s not just about helping dogs and cats, it’s also about assisting low-income people in our community who want to be responsible pet owners, but can’t afford the surgery,” Fahrney said. “The stories of gratitude from many of these pet-owners bring tears.”

“It is hard to imagine anyone who enriched more lives — both human and animal — than Mimi Beadles.”

Beadles called her work a “labor of love.”