Community volunteer from Palmyra presented with Senior Service Award

PALMYRA, Mo. — Lois Gay Phillips recently was selected by then-Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe as a recipient of the 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Senior Service Award, which promotes and highlights the positive accomplishments Missouri’s senior citizens provide their local communities.

People selected to receive the awards are 60 and older and have made a significant contribution through their time, talent and resources to the well-being of others.

Phillips was nominated to receive this award by leadership with United Way of the Mark Twain Area and Douglass Community Services CASA Program. She volunteers weekly at the Palmyra Food Pantry to help provide food to families in need.

She is a committed volunteer through the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program at Douglass Community Services and has been volunteering in that capacity for years. Phillips also helped found a nonprofit, Embrace Children and Families, to ensure foster families and foster children within the 10th Judicial Circuit Court have the resources to thrive and foster.

Phillips was presented with the award on April 1 at the Palmyra Food Pantry. Already that morning, Phillips had been in court with her CASA child and picked up a donated stroller for a foster family through Embrace Children and Families.