Jennifer Poff Cooper received the 2024 Teilmann Youth Services Award from Kiwanis Club of Montgomery County-Blacksburg during its Dec. 12 Christmas dinner.
Jennifer graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Marketing and received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Hollins University. As a freelance writer she has worked for the News Messenger, NRV Magazine, and Valley Business FRONT magazine out of Roanoke. Most of her time is spent volunteering. She has served locally with non-profits from the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program to the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership. She has always been heavily involved in ministries of the United Methodist Church, currently at Blacksburg United Methodist Church. One of her passions is for gun violence prevention; in fact, she wrote her master’s thesis on the gun culture in America. She is the local group leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and in that capacity received the Kiwanis Gunnar Teilmann award.
She was the club’s Jan. 23 speaker when she spoke about Moms Demand Action, an advocate for gun safety, and made up of gun violence survivors. Guns are the leading cause of death in children and teens, with 120 Americans killed daily with guns. The gun homicide rate in states without gun safety is three times greater than in states with gun safety measures. They advocate background checks, Smart Secure gun storage, and gun locks.
Gunnar Teilmann was an Eagle Scout, ordained Methodist minister, husband, Army Chaplin, Silver Star recipient, POW, father, Missionary, Mental Health worker, City of Singapore honoree and Kiwanian. He enlisted in the Army as a Chaplin, was deployed to Europe where he earned a Silver Star as part of the D-Day invasion. He was captured in the Battle of Mortain and was as a POW for nine months. Following the war, Gunnar served as a youth counselor at a Methodist youth camp.
The Teilmann family spent a total of 30 years in missionary service in Asia. After 30 years of service, Gunnar and Wava settled in Blacksburg and he was appointed Associate Pastor of the Blacksburg United Methodist Church, a position he held for six years until his death in 1987.
During the Christmas dinner, Kiwanis presented the Salvation Army with gifts purchased by the members for 40 Christmas Angels.
Kiwanis Club of Montgomery County-Blacksburg