Davidson recognized for serving community

Up until the very last second, Danielle Davidson had no idea she was going to win the Helen R. Walton Award.

'Everyone kept it very well hidden,” she said. 'One of the gentlemen who works at Walmart also volunteers a lot, so I thought he was going to win.”

When Davidson won the award on Wednesday, March 13, she was certain one of her other co-workers was being recognized. It was only when involvement in the Miss Sweet 16 program at Old Threshers was mentioned she realized her boss was talking about her.

The Helen R. Walton Award is given to a Walmart employee for demonstrations of leadership, community service and volunteer work in their community. The recipient of the award is given $1,000 to give to charities of their choosing. Currently, she has given half to Midwest Old Threshers and plans to donate the other half to the newly created FFA program at Mt. Pleasant Community School District.

Davidson's history of volunteerism spans almost a quarter century. She began volunteering 23 years ago with the American Cancer Society and since then has also volunteered time to 4-H, local churches, the Mississippi River Blood Center and, of course, Midwest Old Threshers.

Mt. Pleasant Walmart Manager Chad Sloat was the first to know Davidson had won. While waiting to announce it, he felt 'like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa Claus.” According to Sloat, Davidson wasn't just selected of all people working in the Mt. Pleasant Walmart, but of every associate across 4,177 stores.

'There's 1.5 million U.S. associates and each and every one of them is eligible,” Sloat said.

In order to win the award, Davidson had to be nonimated by her peers on a store level. Following that, she was selected from other winners on a market and regional level, respectively, before finally being chosen as this year's winner.

'We could have announced it at the store level but I thought we should announce it to the community first,” he said. His reasoning for this was that, since Davidson had served the Henry County community at large so much, community members deserved to be the first to know.

'She just does it so thoughtlessly, it's part of her DNA to be involved with so many groups and communities,” Sloat said. 'I was just happy to announce it in front of the group she's served so much.”

The store will be recognizing her as well, with a slideshow cataloging her volunteer hours which will be sent to other Walmarts over the U.S. as a result of her winning the award.

Davidson credits her ability to be so active in the community to the support of her family.

'Most people have to make sure the house is clean and supper is made, but my family has split those responsibilities so I have the time (to volunteer),” she said.

As for why she feels the need to volunteer so much, the answer is simple. 'It takes one person to make the world a better place,” she said. 'I can sit back and complain or I can do something about it.”