Glasgow OLI Champion Award Recipient

Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) has named Georgia Operation Lifesaver State Coordinator Jennie Glasgow recipient of its 2021 Champion Award “in recognition of more than 40 years advancing rail safety education.” OLI announced Glasgow’s award during the 2021 Operation Lifesaver State Coordinator Summit in Omaha, Neb.

“In her 14 years as a volunteer and 33 years as Georgia Operation Lifesaver’s first and only state coordinator, Jennie Glasgow has raised the organization’s profile through her connections with state and national government executives, sports teams, corporations and other nonprofits, all while expanding the organization’s reach and partnerships,” said OLI Executive Director Rachel Maleh. “On behalf of OLI, I am proud to recognize Jennie for her decades of service saving lives and making communities safer in Georgia and across the U.S.”

Glasgow’s involvement in safety began in 1969, when she started the “Bee a Buckler” Safety Program, a nonprofit effort to educate the public about the importance of using safety belts and other safe driving practices. The Georgia Safety Council, which founded Georgia Operation Lifesaver in 1974, that year asked her to include railroad safety in “Bee a Buckler” volunteer presentations to schools and civic organizations. In 1988, Glasgow was named the first paid fulltime Operation Lifesaver State Coordinator.

Appointed by five Georgia governors to the National Association of Women Highway Safety Leaders (NAWSHL), Glasgow serves as NAWSHL historian and is a past president of the nonprofit highway safety organization. She served as a Community Heroes Torchbearer at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in recognition of her outstanding community leadership, and received a 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award from the SafeAmerica Foundation for her more-than 40 years promoting railroad crossing safety.

“What a thrill to be acknowledged and recognized by Operation Lifesaver, Inc. with this prestigious award,” said Glasgow. “I can only hope that I might have made a difference in someone’s life by providing them with information that has kept them from making a wrong decision at a highway-railroad crossing and perhaps thereby saving their life. Being involved with Operation Lifesaver has been an honor. I will always remain an advocate for railroad and traffic safety. Thank you for this honor.”

OLI established the Champion Award in 2010 “to recognize a person who ‘champions’ and advances the organization’s community safety goals. The award honors an individual who, through their work, contributes significantly to the mission in any of the three ‘E’ components of rail safety: education, enforcement or engineering.”