Purpose of Awards: To create a comprehensive awards program for our 1500+ volunteers which serves both our present and our future, recognizing those who are at the core of the fulfillment of the stated mission of Western States:
“To deliver a world-class ultrarunning experience to every athlete”
THE CAPTAIN MARVIN JACINTO COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AWARD (Community/Trail)
The Captain Marvin Jacinto Community Leadership award honors a volunteer whose work on trails and contributions in connecting our race with the community has been extraordinary. The Captain Marvin Jacinto Community Leadership Award is awarded to individuals who have clearly demonstrated achievement in community service/engagement as well as trail work and trail stewardship on behalf of WSER.
The award is named in honor of Captain Marvin Jacinto, a longtime leader of the Placer County Sheriff’s Department as well as the head of the Placer County Search and Rescue Team. Captain Jacinto selflessly and without hesitation offered the services of Placer County’s Search and Rescue Team during the early years of Western States. It was this gesture and subsequent commitment to the safety of all runners of Western States that created the enduring respect and sense of cooperation and teamwork that characterizes the relationship between WSER and the people of Auburn to this very day.
| THE CAPTAIN MARVIN JACINTO COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AWARD (Community/Trail) | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Keyes | 2025 |
THE DR. BOB LIND MEDICAL HUMANITARIAN AWARD (Medical)
The Dr. Bob Lind Medical Humanitarian Award honors a member of the WSER medical team whose longtime contributions have provided compassionate care or furthered the organization’s medical research efforts. The Dr. Bob Lind Medical Humanitarian Award is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication in furthering WSER’s goals of a safe and successful runner experience. The award includes practitioners whose medical care and medical research work have enhanced the vital foundational pillar of compassionate and caring medical care/medical research excellence of WSER.
The award is named of honor of Dr. Bob Lind, who served as WSER’s first medical director as the run was held officially for the first time in 1977 until his retirement in 2006. During that, Dr. Lind not only provided WSER runners with expert care, he formed a team of doctors and nurses who were present throughout the event and became the bedrock of the medical care of WSER. Dr. Lind played a role in some of the earliest medical research studies ever conducted on ultra runners dating back to the early 1980s when he invited Dr. Walter Bortz of Stanford University to conduct studies. Throughout his tenure as medical director, Dr. Lind constantly encouraged medical researchers from throughout the world to come to Western States and conduct studies in order to further the scientific knowledge related to the sport of ultra running.
| THE DR. BOB LIND MEDICAL HUMANITARIAN AWARD (Medical) | Year |
|---|---|
| Dr. Geoff Kurland | 2025 |
THE SOPHIE BROWN VOLUNTEER SPIRIT AWARD (Aid Station volunteers)
The Sophie Brown Volunteer Spirit Award honors an extraordinary volunteer whose dedication at an aid station has gone above and beyond in helping and encouraging the runners of WSER. The Sophie Brown Volunteer Spirit Award is awarded to a single individual whose contributions over the course of several years as an aid station volunteer is one that speaks to the spirit of collaboration, teamwork and collegiality that is at the heart of the runner experience at Western States.
The award is named in honor of the longtime Devil’s Thumb aid station volunteer Sophie Brown, whose example of selfless service became the heart and soul of what the Devil’s Thumb aid station has come to represent to WSER runners. Located at one of the most difficult and challenging points on the Western States course, runners have come to learn that at Devil’s Thumb, they would be treated with the utmost empathy and encouragement. Sophie Brown’s handmade chicken noodle soup, which she prepared special in the days before each year’s run, became a staple at Devil’s Thumb, as did her many affirmations to the runners that, “You can do it.” Before she passed away, Sophie Brown personally recruited her replacement at Devil’s Thumb. And in her final days, she shared with her replacement the secret recipe of her handmade chicken noodle soup recipe, which remains at Devil’s Thumb to this day.
| THE SOPHIE BROWN VOLUNTEER SPIRIT AWARD (Aid Station volunteers) | Year |
|---|---|
| Sandra Opiela | 2025 |
