Longtime Rosecrance board member Peg Wilkerson received special recognition for her volunteer service during the National Association for Addiction Treatment Providers annual conference in Florida.
Wilkerson and singer-songwriter John Hiatt were honored with Caron’s Dr. Jasper G. Chen See Volunteer Leadership Award. The award recognizes people who have provided exceptional volunteer leadership in the area of addiction treatment through board membership and philanthropy.
Wilkerson has been a Rosecrance board member since 1992; at the time, she helped navigate a merger between Rosecrance and another addiction-treatment center she’d been a board member for since 1984. She is the senior vice president of business banking at Alpine Bank in Rockford and uses her financial expertise by serving as the Rosecrance Health Network board treasurer and finance committee chairman. Rosecrance celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and Wilkerson also serves as a 100th Anniversary Committee member.
“The recognition is very humbling,” Wilkerson said of the award. “None of us who do this are in it for the recognition, or we shouldn’t be doing it. Recovery is my passion. This important work allows us to help provide hope and a lifeline to a miracle. That’s what each of us is in it for, whatever the capacity, be that as chairman of the board or treasurer. It’s all about the people and the lives changed.”
Wilkerson also serves on boards in Rockford for the Ethnic Heritage Museum and Midway Village Museum. She’s also involved with the Rockford East/Cherry Valley Rotary Club as the assistant district governor and past president and Rockford Corridor Improvement Inc.