By Kadie Taylor
The Observer
OPELIKA — Earlier this fall, Opelika Main Street held its Main Street Awards and awarded Shree Summerlin with the Main Street Hero Award.
“Over the years, I have proven my commitment to Opelika Main Street by being consistent and disciplined,” she said. “I believe this is a huge part of why I received the Main Street Hero award. I’m a recent graduate from Auburn University, majoring in both Philosophy and German and I am originally from a town just outside of Yosemite National Park, California. I moved to Opelika in 2019 and have been involved in Opelika Main Street since then.”
While working with Opelika Main Street, Summerlin said she has worked in a variety of roles, helping where she was able.
“I’ve worked with Opelika Main Street since 2019, and it was the first Opelika organization that I signed up to be a part of,” she said. “Since the beginning, I have been an active member on the Design Committee and have worked alongside our executive directors to provide my time in whichever capacity was needed – whether it was planning events or preparing letters to be mailed to our members. I also attended the Main Street Now Conference last year as a volunteer, which is the annual conference for all of the Main Streets in the U.S. I assisted in bringing systems to Opelika Main Street that improve the organizational aspect of our organization, like helping to implement and organize a community management software that will help track our volunteer hours, events and goals.”
Serving communities is something that runs in Summerlin’s family, she said. She watched her mom and grandmother impact their communities in varying ways.
“My passion for working with Opelika Main Street is mostly rooted from being part of a family that served,” she said. “My mother served in the Air Force for 20 years, my great-grandmother and aunt both spent their entire careers in education, and my grandmother worked at Yosemite National Park for 15 years. In 2003, my grandmother began a petition to increase the wages of federal employees who worked at Yosemite National Park, which was later approved, but took six years.”
As she grew up, Summerlin said she was brought alongside her mom to volunteer and wanted to continue to seek ways to serve her community in her new home.
“My entire family spent time volunteering, and growing up, my mother would often bring me somewhere to help volunteer,” she said. “I vividly remember spending lots of time at the VFW Hall. That passion for wanting to serve my community reignited when I moved to Opelika, and I was back in a place in my life where I could contribute again.”
Summerlin said she is passionate about the work she is doing at Opelika Main Street and looks forward to continuing to help when and where she can.
“What I find so important about Opelika Main Street, and the Main Street America program in general, is that, when it comes down to it, it really is about the people and the businesses,” she said. “We are here in order to help them succeed, first and foremost, which means we must do an excellent job in hospitality. This means getting to know our merchants well enough to be able to anticipate their needs and doing what we can to meet those needs.”
When she received the Main Street Hero Award, Summerlin said she was surprised, and she is excited for the work that she will continue to do for her community.
“I was very shocked when I received the Main Street Hero award,” she said. “I had no idea that I had been nominated. I am very grateful to have been awarded, and that Kelsey Gallahar-Sullivan, the executive director of Opelika Main Street, and Lisa Harrelson, our Board Chair, have seen the hard work that I have been contributing to Opelika Main Street. Although I was excited, there is always work to be done, and that keeps me incredibly humble.”
