When this year's Spirit of America Foundation Tribute winners for Lincoln County collected their awards in Wiscasset on Tuesday, no recipient had more people step up to help honor them than Westport Island's tax collector and treasurer Susan Partelow.

Municipal agent DeDee Greenleaf-Hodgdon and all three selectmen came, with flowers and a resolution the board passed Nov. 10 listing Partelow's many contributions to the town, from service on committees to going beyond her job duties.

“Thank you very much,” said Partelow, who oversaw the computerizing of the town's operations. “It's been my pleasure to work with all of these people, and I really love Westport Island,” she said.

Husband Jerry Partelow also attended the Nov. 18 ceremonies in the Lincoln County Communications Center.

His wife was among 14 honorees at the fifth annual event. Tuesday's turnout of family members, town officials and other attendees from around Lincoln County was the biggest yet, County Administrator John O'Connell said. It filled the room.

Other honorees Tuesday were Alna's Ralph Hilton, for distinguished service as a Regional School Unit 12 board member; Boothbay Harbor's Leah Sample, who helped start the town’s Meals on Wheels and has helped her local library and church; the Patriotic Club of Bremen, which runs educational programs, gives scholarships and makes donations to several causes; Damariscotta's Patti Whitten for her work as cemetery chairman; the David Beale Kenyon Fund that benefits art and music programs in Dresden; Edgecomb's Bob and Carol Leone, who started Teens To Trails and help the Schmid Preserve; Newcastle's Richard McFarland who spearheaded an effort raise more than $6,000 to put patriotic flags on utility poles; Somerville's Donald Hewett, who served 33 years as selectman and 47 years as fire warden, and has helped his church; South Bristol's Donna Plummer for helping the school, historical society, her church and other causes; the late Southport artist Ruth Rhoads Lepper Gardner, who helped Maine Sea Coast Mission and let the public use her beach for decades; Waldoboro Fire Chief Paul Smeltzer; the Whitefield Days Committee in Whitefield for the annual festival it puts on; and American Legion Post 54 in Wiscasset, for getting American flags mounted on utility poles in town.

In accepting the award, Post Commander William Cossette Jr. said students and many other people helped fund the project.

“It was a super project, and we all enjoy those flags,” County Commissioner Hamilton Meserve said in presenting the post’s award.

Spirit of America President Terrence McCabe said in an interview that he never leaves the award ceremonies without being amazed at the good work people are doing in their communities. What people can accomplish is only limited by the ideas they come up with, he said.

The Spirit of America Foundation promotes volunteerism and helps towns give out the annual tributes.