Born on opposite coasts and coming to the Park City area by different paths, two longtime residents were honored this week for their commitment to community service and altruism in making the community a better place to live.

The Rotary Club of Park City named National Ability Center program manager Tracy Meier and former Park City planning commissioner and current appeals committee chair Adam Strachan as its 2024 Citizens of the Year during an annual ceremony held Tuesday at the DoubleTree.

The Linda Singer Berrett Professional Citizen of the Year and Jack C. Green Volunteer Citizen of the Year awards are given to Summit County residents who have made significant contributions to the community and embody the core values ​​of Rotary.

“It’s truly a who’s who of the last 44 years of Park City and Summit County history; the people who helped make the community what it is today,” said Bob Richer, a past president who oversees the awards ceremony.

In the trenches

Born and raised in Virginia, Meier moved to Park City in 2002 after being selected for a 14-week internship at the National Ability Center—the only place she applied.

The Olympics created a huge buzz for winter sports, but the East Carolina University graduate was also drawn to the variety of the mountains. Each season there was high energy and new opportunities for programs, education and advocacy. It was also where Meier met her husband Monte, a five-time Paralympian.

“I came here and just fell in love with the city. I honestly had no idea where Utah was. I was driving all over the country and there were so many great things happening, so I stayed,” Meier recalls. “I think it was the second day that I called my parents and said, ‘Oh my God, I just love this place.'”

She was drawn to the people involved in the National Ability Center, an organization that promotes adaptive recreational sports and accessibility, and to the clients the nonprofit serves.

Meier discovered her passion for working with people with disabilities in middle school. She began volunteering in a special education class and found appreciation and respect in working with these students.

Another pivotal moment was when a family with a deaf and autistic child visited the farm where Meier grew up. She remembers the staff being afraid to teach the boy, but Meier was adamant that she could make a difference. That experience eventually led her to pursue a degree in physical therapy before moving into recreational therapy.

Meier has worked at the National Ability Center for two decades in numerous roles, including internship director and senior program and education officer.

Every day is a little different as Meier acts as a liaison between departments to help employees implement their ideas, support marketing efforts, advocate for inclusivity, educate the community or connect with customers.

You can find her in meetings, at conferences, running around campus, and teaching. Meier even developed a handicapped skiing exchange program with teachers in South Korea.

For Meier, the rewards for hard work are when she sees someone do something they never thought possible. She cherishes the moments when a family that had given up hope of skiing together learned how to do it, or when a young athlete with a fresh injury was inspired by a former National Ability Center participant who had followed a similar journey.

“Just being able to say yes and give that hope … to people who think the answer is no, is a big reminder to me (of why I do this),” Meier said.

The impact of the National Ability Center is expected to grow even more in the future, especially with the return of the Olympics in 2034. Meier wants to expand the nonprofit’s mission throughout Utah, not only in terms of disability sports, but also on the adventure side, such as improving the usability of national parks for people with disabilities.

“I just think the community expects this to be a part of who we are and that we celebrate differences,” she said. “If we looked at it as nothing wrong or that anything needs to be changed, but that it’s just part of the human experience, then I think people would be a lot more open. I still think we lack that level of comfort.”

Managing changes locally

The Olympics were also a catalyst for Strachan’s community involvement.

The family moved from Salt Lake City to Park City in the late 1980s, when Strachan was about 10 years old. He spent a lot of time skiing in Utah and dreamed of becoming an Olympian as a child. His parents then sent him to attend high school in California, where his mother was dean of the law school at the University of San Diego.

Strachan graduated and then earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California before returning to Utah to study law. He moved around for several years, completing a clerkship in Washington, D.C., and practicing law in San Francisco before he and his wife returned to Park City full-time in 2006.

At that time, the community still had the character of a small town, Strachan remembers, but the 2002 Winter Olympics changed everything.

“Everyone realized Utah was a great place to live, and so the place got a lot bigger,” he said. “After that, it was kind of the same, and then COVID changed everything again.”

More people and more growth inspired Strachan to join Park City’s Planning Commission in 2008. He is an avid cyclist, and voters had just approved a $50 million bond to improve the city’s bike and pedestrian friendliness. Strachan served on a committee that helped determine how that money would be spent and was encouraged to become more involved in local government.

Strachan served on the Planning Commission for two terms before the massive Treasure Hill development project was brought to the board. The plan called for a dense, pedestrian-friendly extension of Old Town with hotels and condominiums.

The lawyer, whose firm specializes in defending ski resorts, said the decision on this project was the most important he made during his time on the planning commission.

“It would have been a game changer for the whole town. Park City had never seen anything like it,” he said. “It was huge. It was a big, complicated problem that was ultimately solved, I think, in the best way possible, which was by us coming together to buy the course and open it.”

Despite raising a family and trying to run a practice, Strachan worked for the Planning Commission for 10 years before retiring, but he said the hours involved were never a factor in his involvement.

Sometimes it was more work than he thought it would be. Sometimes it was less. But Strachan said he just shrugged his shoulders and did it anyway — stepping in and pitching in is just something everyone does in Park City.

Strachan was known on the Planning Commission for his leadership, knowledge, passion and responsibility for the future. He never wanted to be thanked for his service, but Strachan said the recognition was worth 1,000 compliments.

Like many Park residents, the former planning commission chairman worries about what growth means for the community. But Strachan believes it’s more pleasant when people know each other and interact with their neighbors. One way to do that is through volunteerism.

“Growth in itself is not a bad thing. It gets worse when people become isolated and no longer willing to deal with each other in a civilized way, and when more and more of those people come in … then you really add fuel to the fire,” he said.

The Park City Rotary Club was founded in 1980 and the awards ceremony was held for the first time the following year.

The Jack C. Green Award is named after the former mayor of Park City who was instrumental in mobilizing volunteerism in the community. He served from 1978 to 1986. The Linda Singer Berrett Award is dedicated to the first president of the Park City Rotary. Berrett was a strong leader in the community in her role as a teacher and school principal before her death in 2000.

Meier and Strachan will serve as Grand Marshals of the Miners Day Parade.