Everyone says children are our future.

Tim Croley lives out that philosophy daily. For that, he was named the Greenville Area Jaycess Citizen of the Year. He was presented the award at the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce Member Banquet Thursday night.

“When we started the process this year, I had a good idea of the type of person that I would be voting for,” Ben Norman, a member of the Jaycees,  said. “Somebody who is active in the community, participates in civic organizations and it needs to be somebody that has helped the community forward.”

After the nominations were in, Norman got a final letter that sold him on his vote and he knew others as well.

“It means a lot to me,” Croley said. “Obviously the work my wife and I do in the community, we don’t do it for special recognition or praise but it does mean a lot to me. It’s a humbling experience to even be nominated.”

“(Croley) reached one of the community’s more important resources — our children.”

Croley has opened his home to more than 16 foster children from Butler County and surrounding counties in the two and half years he and his wife became foster parents, Norman said.

Not only has Croley chartered and became the first president of Butler County Foster Parent’s Association, he served as a minister at Fort Deposit Church of Christ for the past three years, coached youth basketball, worked as a football referee and has also been Relay for Life captain.

“He’s dedicated for shaping the lives of children and helping in the healing in the abuse or neglect that they have experienced,” Norman said. “In our world, our committed fathers are few and far between. He’s demonstrated his desire to serve as a role model while sharing his own values in helping his children broaden their perspectives of the world.”

Croley said he was simply meeting a need.

“It’s just the satisfaction of knowing that you’re able to help those who otherwise would not be able to help themselves,” Croley said. “We felt there was need in the community and we felt that we could be resource and fill that need and that’s what we plan to do.”

The Jaycee’s Citizen of the Year award was established in memory of John D. Murphy by his wife, Susan Murphy, with the help of the Jaycees, to honor individuals who volunteer their time to help the community.