(Boris Malchev of the Tomsk Duma, (center, front row) honored Trustee Jones (right) with other award recipients.)

In Russia, the president of the Duma of the Tomsk Oblast presented Jones on 28 June with the Mercy and Charity Award in recognition of her leadership in helping improve the lives of thousands of children in the state.

On 22 July, Jones received the Alaska Legislature’s Honorarium Certificate for her accomplishments and service within Alaska and for her appointment as the first female trustee of The Rotary Foundation. Jones is from Anchorage.

The award from the Tomsk Oblast recognizes individuals who have participated in outstanding humanitarian initiatives in the state. Of the 16 recipients to date, only two are non-Russian, and both are Rotarians. Kimberley Day, of the Rotary Club of Eureka, California, USA, is a past recipient.

“This is a great honor for me today to stand before you as a recipient of the Mercy and Charity Award,” Jones said in her acceptance speech. “It is always a surprise to return here and to see how much the children have grown up. I have known and loved some of these children for eight years. They have grown from little toddlers to teenagers.”

Jones told attendees that she discovered a special purpose to her life when she visited the children’s cancer ward of the Siberian State Medical Hospital during a 1997 trip to Tomsk.

Eastern Russia is part of Rotary International District 5010, and Jones was in the country as a member of a team of Rotary leaders from the Alaskan portion of the district.

“The children had various forms of leukemia and cancers of the blood,” she explained. “They needed chemotherapy medicine in order to live, but the hospital lacked the money to buy the medicine.”

Moved by what she saw, Jones helped rally international Rotary club support for the Children of Russia Program, initiated by the Rotary Club of Tomsk to improve the lives of children, including the hospitalized ones.

“In one year, Rotarians from around the world raised over US$600,000 — about 17 million rubles — to benefit needy children,” Jones said.

The money, which included Rotary Foundation Matching Grant funds, supported 30 educational, health, and humanitarian relief efforts. Jones oversaw the successful implementation of all 30 projects through the most difficult stretch of Russia’s economic meltdown in the 1990s. She participated hands-on during her regular site visits.

Jones led four other Anchorage-area Rotarians during the most recent trip to Tomsk. The group volunteered at an orphanage and delivered five laptop computers for the children.