Mary Gould knew a month ago that her husband, Mark Gould, was to be honored as Citizen of the Year at the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association’s annual awards gala Saturday night.

What she didn’t know as she was busy helping to compile family photos and such that were part of a video and slide show tribute, was that she too was being honored alongside her husband for their many years of community leadership and volunteer service.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” Mary Gould said following the award presentation by longtime friend and 2011 Citizen of the Year Mike Fattor. “It’s gratifying when people support whatever it is that’s going on in the community, and don’t run the other way when I come asking for money.”

From their dual involvement during four decades in Glenwood Springs with Valley View Hospital and its foundation, to supporting numerous nonprofit organizations in the area, Fattor said the Goulds are worthy recipients of the Citizens of the Year honor.

Mary Gould has been a longtime supporter and volunteer for the Valley View Foundation’s Summit Circle, Hospice of the Valley, the Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts, Summer of Music and Mothers of Preschoolers.

Together, she and Mark are also active supporters of the Colorado Mountain College Foundation, YouthZone and the chamber, and they helped to found the Gould Family Scholarship Fund.

In his letter nominating the Goulds for Citizens of the Year, Fattor wrote, “The one thing that separates Mark and Mary in their drive to make this community better is their equal devotion and love of their family. … Their whole family is always included in all of the Gould’s accomplishments.

“Today, you will find their children also involved in community,” Fattor wrote.

Their three children, Evan, Megan and Mark Jr., each offered a tribute to their parents as part of the video presentation.

Mark’s father, Norm Gould, who turned over the family business, Gould Construction, to his then-26-year-old son in 1985, was overcome by emotion in offering a few words of support.

“He is just a very generous and a very loving man, and love is the most powerful thing on earth,” the elder Gould said of his son.

Mark Gould is quick to credit that to his father, and to the supportive community to which his parents decided to move the family in 1977.

“Glenwood has been wonderful to the Gould family, and that is why we have given back,” Mark Gould said following the award presentation. “We’re working on our fourth generation here, and it has been a pleasure to call Glenwood Springs home.”

As a longtime general contractor in the Roaring Fork Valley, Gould Construction has been involved in numerous public projects ranging from the 27th Street roundabout and Atkinson Trail to the whitewater park in Glenwood, and the new Bus Rapid Transit stations up and down the valley.

Personally, Mark Gould has also been active in numerous business and political circles over the years.

‘Head hawg’ Carnevale honored

Longtime YouthZone crisis worker and fundraiser Mary Jean Carnevale was also in the dark about her selection for this year’s special Athena Award, having come to the chamber gala to support a friend she was told would be receiving the award.

Carnevale was part of YouthZone, helping get troubled adolescents in the community back on track and heading up the annual Kiss-n-Squeal fundraiser for the organization for nearly 25 years before her departure late last year.

Her selection for the annual Athena award marks the first time two sisters have won the award. Carnevale’s sister, Debbie Wilde, who was the longtime executive director of YouthZone until 2012, won the award in 2000.

“Mary Jean is the wind beneath many wings,” Wilde said in co-presenting the award to Carnevale along with last year’s recipient, Lorie Beattie Courier, and one of the very first Athena recipients, Tillie Fischer.

“No gentle breeze, this, she is a noticeable force … and the inspiration behind a great deal in this community,” Wilde said of Carnevale.

As “Head Hawg” organizer of Kiss-n-Squeal for 23 years, she grew the event from a $2,500 fundraiser to one that now raises more than $190,000 annually.

And her work with troubled youth shows her “huge reservoir of love for all of our kids,” noted Glenwood Springs Police Chief Terry Wilson in his nomination letter.

“She was known for showing up at 3 in the morning, bright-eyed and awake to work with youthful violators after having made several calls on the way in,” Wilson wrote. “She’d monitor kids through court procedures and afterwards with a magic combination of education, attention and accountability.”

Carnevale said she would “uphold and the honor the award whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“I’m not a person who is ever in the limelight, and to be recognized for that work is really special,” she said.

The annual chamber gala and dinner party, held at the Aspen Glen Clubhouse, had a Downton Abbey theme, with many attendees dressing the part from the popular PBS television series. Longtime local arts and entertainment writer, columnist and comedian April Clark was the emcee for the event.

Numerous other awards were handed out at the event, including the Athena Young Professional award, which went to Janelle Rhoton, a partner in the Property Shop real estate company.

Other awards, listed separately, went to the local business and tourism business of the year and volunteer of the year.