Kula Resident Honored With AARP Service Award

2013 Winners of Outstanding Older Americans: Richard Endsley & Diane Logsdon. Photo courtesy: County of Maui/Ryan Piros.

By Maui Now Staff

Kula resident Diane Logsdon, was selected as the recipient of the 2014 Andrus Award for community service from AARP Hawaiʻi.

The 83-year-old Maui resident volunteers her time with the Maui Friends of the Library.

She aalso oversaw the building of a new structure at Kula Hospital  that allowed for the expansion of the facility’s thrift store, and directed the creation of a hospital garden for patients and employees.

The award comes on the heels of her recognition last year as the outstanding older American in Maui County for her years of volunteer service, leadership and care-giving activities.

The Andrus Award is an annual honor issued for exemplary volunteer leadership named after AARP’s founder Ethel Percy Andrus who exemplified AARP’s motto, “To serve, not to be served.”

According to AARP, Logsdon had several businesses on Oʻahu before moving to Maui in 1989 after she was diagnosed with macular degeneration. “I am legally blind,” she said in an AARP press release. “That’s when I started volunteering.”

Logsdon owned and operated Maui Bear Hugs for two years, collecting free teddy bears, washing and putting clothes on them and distributing them to police and fire stations to give to accident and fire victims. “I really, really loved that,” she said. She tells AARP that sh wants to do it again, but no longer drives and has difficulty getting around to thrift stores to collect bears.