GUNNISON—A woman described by a fellow volunteer as “the most selfless person I’ve ever met” was named the Emily Braithwaite Woman of Service last Saturday, Aug. 6 during the Miss Sanpete pageant.
“She works harder than any human being on the face of the earth,” Justen Mellor, founder of United We March, said of Kara Jensen of Gunnison, the Woman of Service for 2022.
According to a biography read at the pageant, Jensen has coached youth sports, saved the Miss Gunnison Valley Pageant when it was about to be abandoned and has played a key role in the United-We-March organization.
Jensen has coached volleyball, T-ball and football.
In 2014, when it looked like there would be no Miss Gunnison Valley competition,she stepped up to help, even though she had never been a “pageant girl.” The pageant is now in its 53rd year.
In 2018, she and her husband were part of the inaugural committee to help Mellor advance his vision of a big community event to support veterans and first responders. Jensen has spent hundreds of hours helping make the vision a reality, including being one of the biggest fundraisers for the operation.
In fact, over her lifetime, in all manner of community fund raising efforts, she is credited with raising up to $2 million to help people in need, according to the biography read at the pageant.
On the day of United-We- March and the associated ruck race, she directs the water stations. “She is covered in dust, but she is cheering people on,” Mellor said. When she isn’t volunteering or doing charity work, she loves to hunt and spend time with her husband, Zach, and her children, Eladee and Aker.
She is the daughter of Dan and Michelley Dalley of Centerfield.
