There was plenty of cause for celebration at the 2025 SOS Strong Awards banquet Wednesday evening.
First of all, this year’s contingent of SOS Strong Ambassadors raised a total of just over $42,000, the third-highest total ever achieved. SOS Director Mickey Edwards says this year’s team “knocked it out of the park” with their creativity, passion and dedication to their charge.
SOS Board President and former SOS Strong Ambassador Tyler Curtis says this group truly put the fun in fundraising.
This year, the award for most dollars raised went to Trenton Bottles, who garnered more than $9,200, which is the fifth-highest individual amount raised in a single year in SOS Strong history. Bottles says the dollars are great, but the amount of awareness and community conversation he helped to generate was the true victory for him.
The most unique fundraising award went to literal strongman and Emporia Fire Fighter Jordan Barr, who pulled a 17-ton fire truck on his back as part of his fundraising efforts. Barr told KVOE News that “pulling a fire truck is easy, but seeking help and services takes true strength.”
On top of the individual efforts, this year also saw several challenges among the ambassadors, including first responder agencies and local banking establishments. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office received the award for most money raised by a first responder agency, while Lyon County State Bank and Ambassador Jack Honea claimed the award for most money raised by a banking establishment.
All proceeds raised by SOS Strong will go to support SOS operations. The full list of SOS Strong ambassadors is below:
Sinjin Andrews
Aaron Larson
Nic Baker
Mic McGuire
Jordan Barr
Curtis Nelson
Chris Bartel
Justin Rahe
Trenton Bottles
Nathan Rankin
Brandon Early
Joe Raygoza
Alec Ford
Owen Reed
Jack Honea
Mike Roney
