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Karen Mulvaney was stunned to learn about being selected as Lafayette's Citizen of the Year. She graciously acknowledged the many other Lafayette residents that work hard to make this a special and unique place to call home.

Mulvaney moved to Lafayette twenty-five years ago with husband Tom, son Mason and welcomed the arrival of their daughter a few years later. She credits her parents for her charitable point of view, "Leave a place better for having lived there and do your best to lighten the loads of others when possible." Both she and husband Tom try to live up to their respective parents' examples and honor them by how they conduct themselves.

She has been working for the last several years in support of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation where she is on the Board of Trustees. The Foundation is responsible for the majority of funding that keeps the doors open at the Library.

Prior to her Foundation work, Karen and Tom Mulvaney were busy volunteering for schools. "Together we were involved in five campaigns for the local parcel tax and bond measures. If it weren't for Tom, I'm not certain what would have happened to school funding given the economic disasters at the State level and the enormous impact it has on local schools," said Mulvaney.

The prior Citizen of the Year was actually Citizens of the Year - a group of hundreds of residents that brought the Lafayette Library and Learning Center to life. A dinner to honor Mulvaney will be held at the Lafayette Park Hotel on March 25; call the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce for ticket information, 284-7404.