Every year, the Voorhees Breakfast Rotary Club honors individuals who’ve made an impact in the community with its service awards. This year’s four winners include George Devakos (left to right), Robert Cranmer, Stephanie Fowler and Charli Aumiller.
The Voorhees Breakfast Rotary Club is a group of dedicated volunteers who’ve worked together for more than 20 years to meet critical needs in the community, the region and the world.
Every year, the club comes honors people who’ve made an impact in the community with its service awards. This year marked its 17t. Past president Roger Leonard presented the awards that are held every year in January.
Service Above Self Award
Robert Cranmer has served as principal of Osage Elementary School for 15 years. Before that, he was a special-education teacher and assistant principal. He has developed strong relationships with the students and families during his time at Osage.
“If you ask anyone who knows Bob, they will tell you that the most favorite part of his job are the students,” according to his biography presented at the awards ceremony. “It is important to him that all children who attend Osage feel as though they are cared for and supported during their educational journey.”
Under Cranmer’s leadership, Osage has successfully implemented several initiatives to help students and their families outside of the regular school day, including a program for students in need of reading and math remediation. He also initiated Homework Helpers, a group that meets twice a week after school to provide students with extra homework help. The school also offers eight after-school clubs to third through fifth-grade students.
Cranmer said he was humbled to receive the award and thanked the students, parents and staff of Osage for making every day at work easy and enjoyable experience.
Citizen of the Year Award
Stephanie Fowler serves as the supervisor of records in the township police department, where she leads a team focused on modernizing records management, streamlining operations and fostering an efficient and supportive workplace.
“Stephanie’s dedication to helping others extends deeply into her community,” noted her biography. “Stephanie’s commitment to her community remains unwavering. She continues to support projects that make a powerful impact on local families.”
Fowler is the co-creator of the Voorhees Police Holiday Fund, now in its 24th year, and was deeply involved in her children’s schools, volunteering in classrooms, serving as room mom, chaperoning trips, assisting during lunch periods, and supporting every fundraiser. That continued when her children were at Eastern High School, where she helped annually with the school’s holiday craft show fundraiser for Project Graduation.
Fowler said she was honored and humbled to receive the Citizen of the Year Award, emphasizing that the recognition belongs equally to the many volunteers who work alongside her.
“It truly is a group effort,” she noted.
First Responder of the Year Award
George Devakos has dedicated nearly four decades to emergency services, combining a strong
educational foundation with a life-long commitment to helping others.
He began his emergency services journey in 1986 with the Kresson Fire Company, where he volunteered for many years and earned numerous certifications, including firefighter, EMT, fire inspector, fire officer, SCUBA rescue diver, vehicle rescue specialist, fire instructor and EMS instructor. He concluded his volunteer service as battalion fire chief in 2003.
In 2000, Devakos joined New Jersey Task Force 1, the state’s elite urban search-and-rescue team under FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) system. He served as a USAR paramedic for many years before transferring to the Hazmat Group in 2023. His deployments have included major structural collapses, including the 9/11 response and multiple hurricane and flood events.
Devakos’ fire service career began in 2003 as a full-time EMT with the township fire district. He became a career firefighter in 2004 and continued expanding his training. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2011 and captain in 2022. In February he was sworn in as township department’s battalion chief.
Devakos said he’s deeply grateful for the dedicated colleagues he has worked alongside, all united by the shared mission of protecting the community and helping others in their most difficult moments.
Selfless Student of the Year Award.
Charli Aumiller is a senior at Eastern High School.
“Since she was a child, Charli has shown a remarkable compassion and dedication to her community, as well as empathy for others, especially those facing personal and life challenges,” according to her biography for the awards.
“Her strong school spirit and infectious enthusiasm make her a role model for her peers.”
Aumiller has volunteered monthly with the South Jersey Chapter of the Jewish Relief Agency (JRA). Along with other members of the community and friends that Aumiller has recruited, they pack more than 100 boxes of essentials for the food insecure in South Jersey.
At Eastern, Aumiller is a consistent honor roll student. In addition to her academics, she has been involved in athletics both for her school and the township for many years. She was most recently captain of the Eastern Girls Soccer varsity team and has played travel soccer for the Voorhees Soccer Association (VSA).
Aumiller will represent Team USA at the International Maccabi Games in Israel this summer. The Maccabiah is the world’s largest Jewish athletic competition and the second largest sporting event in the world – in terms of number of athletes competing – after the Olympics, according to its website. Taking place every four years in Israel, the games are Maccabi World Union’s largest initiative.
In the fall, Aumiller will attend Arcadia University, where she’ll play soccer and major in health science in the college’s pre-physician assistant program. She will also join the Unified Basketball team at Eastern, and has loved playing basketball with the school’s special needs students, on and off the courts.
The Voorhees Breakfast Rotary Club is led by president Sue Bromley and welcomes all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities. It meets online and in person every Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. at the Stratford Diner.
Rotary is a global network of more than 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders and problem-solvers. It has 45,000 clubs in more than 200 countries. Locally, the township club strives to help the community with projects that include the For the Kids Nutritional Snack program at Osage Elementary, the Josh the Otter Water Safety program at the township’s elementary schools in May, seasonal fruit sales benefiting the Voorhees Animal Orphanage and Thanksgiving dinners for needy families.
The Rotary supports Eastern High’s Interact Club and provides scholarships to graduating seniors. The club also supports the Ronald McDonald House in Camden by preparing and serving meals to the families staying there, and sponsors awards for graduates of Cathedral Kitchen’s Culinary Arts Program.
