Hamilton Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf, a recent recipient of the Community Asset award from the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce said he was “pleasantly surprised” at being selected for the honor.
“I was really happy about it,” said Farrenkopf, “because it completely validates everything that I do.” Farrenkopf works as the Community Life Director at Sapphire Lutheran Homes in Hamilton. Sapphire Lutheran Homes is a faith based community serving people of all faiths and religions, whose mission is “to provide compassionate, innovative services and amenities enabling seniors to maintain and enhance their quality of life.”
As Community Life Director, Farrenkopf engages the community in fundraisers and concerts and other educational programs “where we take Sapphire to the community and take the community to Sapphire,” he says.
“Now you are saying that this community director is also a community asset. That means that I’m doing my job,” said Farrenkopf. He said Sapphire Lutheran Homes was a Chamber member and that he accepted this Chamber recognition “with a servant’s heart, because I love to serve.” He said at Sapphire that was their mission, to serve seniors and to serve the community.
“So it’s perfect if you are serving people to be recognized for your good service,” he said.
Farrenkopf said that the City was also a Chamber member and that as the Mayor, he feels that serving the community is a duty. He said when you do something like this you have a sense of responsibility.
“You can’t go to every single community event,” he said, “but if I can go, I do.” He said when he does go, he does it with that sense of obligation because the citizens of Hamilton voted for him and elected him as mayor.
“I’m very proud of being Mayor,” he said. “I love being the Mayor. I get to help so many people. So I approach that sense of community service as a duty, as this is your job. So go forth and do it. And you try and do it well. Then you get recognized for that and they say hey, this is a job well done. This just bolsters everything inside of me and makes me want to work even harder for the community that I love.”
“But you know what the biggest thing is?” said Farrenkopf. “People see you and they say, oh, you are this community asset, a shining star, this person that puts yourself out there and helps his organization. Well, that’s great. But without my staff at Sapphire, without the volunteers at Sapphire, without the rest of the management team, I can’t go out and do all those things. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that takes place on a daily basis that I rely heavily on from my staff. I couldn’t do it all, the concerts, the fundraisers, and things, and that’s really important for people to know.”
He said the same goes for his work as Mayor and his staff at the City.
“Again, it’s fine, you can be the Mayor and stand up and give a speech, show up at activities and cut a ribbon and all that stuff, but to get to that point you have to have a staff working behind the scenes.
“Both the staff at Sapphire and the staff at the City are very hard workers and loyal to their organization and they are committed to the mission of each organization. So to have these people who are loyal, committed and determined to make everything a success, that’s really where it’s at, because without those people I couldn’t do what I do. So I am extremely grateful to them and the work that they do.”
He said the other important person in the equation was his wife, Hannah.
“She really sacrifices a lot of her time and a lot of our time together. I go to a lot of events on weekends and evenings. She loses time with me, but she also does things for me like making costumes or whatever, she’s a very behind-the-scenes person too.”
“Staff at Sapphire, staff at the City and my family supporting me in the background, that’s really important for people to know,” said Farrenkopf.