Salem Days Community Service Award


Jileen Dee Meservy, 2011 Recipient

Jileen was born in Tooele, Utah, but did most of her growing up in the Lake Forest area of Southern California where she enjoyed going to the beach and showing extended family and friends their way around Disneyland. She attended El Toro High School and participated on the Varsity Cheer Squad. Following high school she moved to Provo to attend BYU and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. She taught school for two years. It was Jileen’s college years that gave her the foundation of service and how wonderful it feels to help others.

Her desire to serve her God drove her to serve an LDS church mission. She served in the Netherlands, Amsterdam mission. She loved speaking dutch, so much she took a position in the International Division of WordPerfect Corporation following her 18 month mission.

It was there she met the man of her dreams and was married in the Salt Lake Temple to Mark Meservy in 1989. They now have six children, 5 handsome boys and a lovely daughter. Their names are Morgan, Blake, McKenna, Wade, Drew & Seth. She is a devoted wife and mother and loves to be in the outdoors exercising, playing, or working in her yard and garden. She also loves to read and stitch.
Mark and Jileen moved to the Salem area in 1995, first living in Woodland Hills then later to Salem. While in Woodland Hills she worked for the Salem Recreation Department as the secretary to Gary Warner. She also coached most of her kids in T-ball.

Jileen has taken an active part in serving in each of the schools her kids have attended. She has been on the School Community Council and PTA boards for Mt. Loafer Elementary, Spanish Fork Middle School, Spanish Fork Jr. High and Salem Hills High School. She also volunteered in each of her children’s elementary classrooms each year as well as served as a room mother at various times. She is currently the Teacher Appreciation Coordinator at Salem Hills High School.

Six years ago Jileen was asked to assist in the Salem Youth Council. The next year she found herself being the advisor. The program has changed a lot since she first took on the position. The council now has 35 members who are expected to attend a meeting each month to plan and to learn about how our city government works. They participate in over 25 service projects for the city and other organizations throughout the year – Salem Days being one of them. She takes them to the USU Youth Council Leadership Conference each year and they have a lot of fun and unity experiences together. They have also started having a retreat each year to get to know each other and to learn leadership skills.

Jileen has found that the more she works with and for people, her capacity to love and accept everyone has increased. She always feels it is a gift to get to serve others.
Past Recipients include:

2011 Jileen Dee Meservy
2010 Christine Weight and Karen Weight
2009 Anthony Bowden
2008 Dorothy Jensen
2007 Dale Boman
2006 Nadene Davis Cope
2005 Gaylen Hanks Llewellyn
2004 Reta Israelsen Tischner
2003 Connie Hanks McVey
2002 Mary Klug
2001 LaDean Thorne and Devro James Duke
2000 Sanda Crawford
1999 Erman Stone
1998 Lynn Durrant
1997 Special Award: “Pioneer Acheivement Award” presented to Job Measom
1997 Salem Utah and Salem West Stake Presidencies
1996 Jan Gordon
1995 Bartell Mortensen
1994 Salem Emergency Medical Association
1993 Guss P. Black
1992 Harry and Lorna Davis
1991 Wahoo Riding Club
1990 Gary Warner