By Irene Luck – August 2025

Each year LACA presents the Jack Bertron Distinguished Service Award to an individual or organization that has gone above and beyond on behalf of the Lake Anna community.  Originally known as the LACA Good Neighbor Award, the commendation has been presented at the annual meeting since 1996.  Following the death of Jack Bertron, founder of LACA, the award was renamed in 2002 to recognize his dedication to the Lake Anna community.

This year’s winners, Pat and Jane Gallagher, have made quite an impact on the Lake Anna community by spearheading the efforts to have fire and rescue services located at the lake.  And once New Bridge Station 8 was established, they didn’t sit back and relax.  They have continued to raise money for the extras for the station for the benefit of the lake residents and guests.

The Gallaghers were unable to make the annual meeting in person on Saturday, July 26 so the award was presented on Monday, July 21 at the Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services board meeting.

“This award is given for those who have gone way above the call of duty,” said Greg Baker, LACA president.  “You certainly have done that.”

Harry Looney, who works closely with Pat Gallagher, spoke about the Foundation’s successful efforts.  Gallagher leads a water quality monitoring team as part of LACA’s Water Quality Committee and several of his monitoring team were also in attendance.

The initial goal of the Foundation was to raise $100,000 to assist in constructing the facility, located on New Bridge Road just north of the Food Lion shopping center.  But the foundation didn’t stop there.  The group, led by the Gallaghers, continue to raise money for the station to use to purchase extra equipment and have amassed over $700,000 in donations from their efforts.

“Just like LACA, we know when we say ‘you’ we know it’s more than just you two,” Looney said.  “But every effort needs great leadership at the top to achieve its goals and you two have been that leadership.  We congratulate you and applaud you for your efforts in this project.”

Duane Adams, Mineral District representative on the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, also attended the presentation remembering in 2019 when the Gallaghers called him to talk about the need for a fire station.  He and the fire chief at the time met with the Gallaghers and the ball got rolling.

“On behalf of the Board and me personally, since I live in this fire district, I congratulate you.  You have to have the right people in leadership to achieve something like this and you have the two right people,” he said.  “They have spent untold amounts of their time, energy and effort making this happen and getting the right people to work with them.  If we didn’t have the right people spearheading this effort back in 2019, we would probably still be looking at a dog park instead of a fire and EMS station.”

To learn more about the Gallaghers and the Foundation or to donate to their fundraising efforts, visit their website at www.newbridgerescue.com or their Facebook page at Residents for 24/7EMS @LKA.

Recent past winners of the Jack Bertron Distinguished Service Award have included Harry Looney, Chris Lee and Elk Creek Farm - the Morris and Chisholm families.  Others who have received the honor include the late Louis and Claudia Chisholm, Doug Smith, the late Del. V. Earl Dickinson, George O’Connell, Herb Distefano, Ken Remmers, James Beckley, and Rebecca Vigon.

Nominees for the award are solicitated from LACA members and board members in April with the board of directors making the final decision at their July meeting.  Nominees should be selected for their outstanding work or acts performed for the benefit of the Association members and the Lake Anna community at large with such efforts of such significance that great foresight or extensive and difficult work was demonstrated.  The work should be in accord with LACA’s mission, goals and objectives.  Nominees do not have to be members of LACA and can include agency or organization representatives that work with LACA’s committees to better the community.

Pictured left to right are: Duane Adams, Greg Baker, Pat Gallagher, Jane Gallagher and Harry Looney.

irene.luck@lakeannavirginia.org