Jackie Trefcer, marketing director of The Apopka Chief and The Planter newspapers, has helped organize the annual Apopka Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast for at least the past seven years.
Yet this past May 4, the day the breakfast took place, she had no idea what surprise awaited her there: being named the 2017 recipient of the Apopka Christian Ministerial Alliance (ACMA) Pillar Award, an honor given to an individual for his or her above-and-beyond community service in Apopka.
The Apopka Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, hosted by ACMA, falls on the first Thursday of May in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer.
The event includes a keynote speaker who discusses his or her journey of faith. John Rivers, founder and president of the restaurant chain 4 Rivers Smokehouse, filled that role this year.
“It is an honor,” Trefcer said about getting the award. “It really is. I know a lot of thought went into that nomination. Just honored and thrilled.”
Besides the prayer breakfast, Trefcer’s many community involvements include but were not limited to, the city’s Fourth of July Festival, the city of Apopka’s 120th anniversary in a year-long celebration in 2002, the parade for the 2001 World Series Little League winners, and the Military Ball held at the Apopka Community Center/VFW Community Center in 2011 and 2012.
To organize the May 4 prayer breakfast, Trefcer coordinated with ACMA President Pastor Darrell Morgan of Word of Life Church in Apopka.
Trefcer knew the program agenda included a presentation of the AMCA Pillar Award, but when she asked Morgan for the recipient’s name, he told her it would be anonymous. She didn’t give the response a second thought.
Given that more than 10 people in ACMA unanimously agreed Trefcer deserved the award, how this was kept a secret until the day of the breakfast was quite a feat.
“When I first took over the presidency of the Apopka Christian Ministerial Alliance, I began to work with Jackie,” Morgan said. “I worked with her in the past, last year, on this event (also). It dawned on me that ‘Wow, this lady has done an enormous amount to help us as an alliance.’”
Once the ACMA members suggested Trefcer for the Pillar Award, Morgan approached The Apopka Chief and The Planter publisher John Ricketson in assistance with writing down all of Trefcer’s community involvement. These were announced at the prayer breakfast.
“(Afterward) I went to the people (in ACMA) and said, ‘Listen, don’t say anything to her,’” Morgan said. “I thought there was a chance there’d be a leak, but there wasn’t. Everyone was quiet.”
When Morgan called Trefcer’s name at the breakfast, Trefcer thought she was needed on stage to do something both she and Morgan omitted.
The full story can be found on page 1B of the Friday, May 26, edition of The Apopka Chief.
