West Sacramento, CA – Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) is pleased to announce that Don Pfau has been selected as one of two Montanans to receive RCAC’s Yoneo Ono Outstanding Rural Volunteer Award.

The Yoneo Ono Award was established in honor of Yoneo Ono, one of RCAC’s founders. For his lifelong commitment to rural development, RCAC’s board presented the first award to Ono when he retired from its board in 1984. The biennial award honors rural residents who have made significant lifelong contributions to their community in volunteer capacities within RCAC’s service area.

Don Pfau has spent decades volunteering to improve the lives of thousands of Central and Northeastern Montana residents. He spearheaded large infrastructure projects, such as the five flood control dams in Spring Creek, where repeated flooding had threatened lives and livelihoods. He worked with U.S. Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials to develop the Crooked Creek Recreation Area; and the Big Spring Creek Watershed Partnership, where he worked to create a trail system along Spring Creek and on Lewistown’s former rail bed.

Pfau has been an invaluable fundraiser and was instrumental in bringing numerous and varied projects to fruition, including a convention center,  hospital, high school, fairground improvements and a satellite college campus. He continues to advise the Central Montana Foundation, which has assets exceeding $20 million and serves five rural counties. All of this volunteer work is remarkable because Pfau carried out much of it while he built a retail sporting goods business.

Founded in 1978, RCAC provides training, technical and financial resources and advocacy so rural communities can achieve their goals and visions. RCAC serves rural communities in 13 western states and the Pacific islands. To find out more about RCAC, visit www.rcac.org.

RCAC has nearly 120 staff members throughout the West, including those living in Montana; plus native Montanans employed at the headquarters in West Sacramento, California.

RCAC will present the award to Don Pfau during a ceremony to be held in August 2016.

Pam Higgins
Rural Community Assistance Corporation
(406) 366-0902 Cell
phiggins@rcac.org