AARP Georgia Honors Walon Smith with Its Most Prestigious Volunteer Award

AARP Georgia staff joined several Warner Robins leaders recently at Rigby’s Entertainment Complex, to present the 2025 AARP Andrus Award for Community Service to Walon Smith of Perry, Georgia. The award, named after AARP founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, is the Association’s most prestigious honor for volunteerism and community impact.

Smith joins the ranks of Andrus Awardees, which include poet, author, and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou, former U.S. Senator and caregiver advocate Elizabeth Dole, and television pioneer and social innovator, Norman Lear. AARP annually honors individuals and couples nationwide who make a powerful difference in their communities through volunteer service. Honorees are nominated by members of their communities and selected from a board consisting of AARP staff and past awardees. Sylvia McGee nominated Smith for the Andrus Award.

“When I read the information about the Andrus Award, I knew that Walon exemplified all the qualities that this award represents – servant leadership and consistency, because I think he sustains that service, it’s not just an event,” McGee said. “He has dedicated years to a mission, and he has enlisted others. I knew that this is what Dr. Andrus did, in terms of her work, and Walon has that same kind of pattern,” she added.

Since 2019, Smith has been a volunteer tutor with AARP Foundation Experience Corps at Centerville Elementary School in Houston County. Through this program, he provides one-on-one reading support to students for 30 weeks each school year, helping them build literacy skills and confidence. A retired insurance executive, Smith became passionate about childhood literacy after learning about its lifelong impact at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce conference.

His leadership extends beyond the classroom. Smith actively encourages, recruits, and educates his Rotary Club and local community networks to raise awareness about the importance of reading proficiency by third grade. His advocacy has inspired similar volunteer efforts in neighboring schools and districts, and he has even invited Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods to visit Houston County to highlight this vital work.

During his acceptance speech, Smith emphasized the importance of advocating for our children. “I have been to a lot of Rotary Club meetings throughout the state and, before I get there, I look at the [reading] scores of the schools,” Smith said. The honoree noted that only about 33% of Georgia’s third- and fourth-grade students are reading at a proficient level. Smith said that many of our school districts have percentages that are in the teens or single digits, referring to the number of third graders who are reading proficiently. This issue is worse in some places. So just advocate for the children. Volunteer to be a tutor. Do for one, what you wish you could do for all,” he encouraged the audience of nearly 75 family members and friends. He also urged attendees to donate to the United Way, which supports schools in Central Georgia. He closed his remarks with Psalm 82:3, “Defend the weak and the fatherless,” he said while holding back tears. “Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. I feel that is exactly what we are doing.”

Smith’s volunteer service for Georgia’s children drew praise from last year’s Andrus Awardee Louis Frank Tompkins. “It is evident that this gentleman feels strongly about the AARP motto - To serve not to be served. He has given of himself to promote his true feelings about the success of children who are without, cannot and have not had the resources. He put himself in a position to augment what is taught in our educational system, and that is remarkable,” Tompkins said.

“AARP deeply values the spirit of volunteerism and the tremendous impact volunteers like Walon have in strengthening our communities,” said Vanessa J. Payne, AARP Georgia State Director.