“I’m so proud I could just die,” said Amy Moe. She is sitting at one of the tables right at the back of the crowded room.

Moe looks over the heads of the hundreds of guests, up toward the podium, where in a few moments the winners of the Issaquah Community Awards will stand.

Her son, Braxton Curtis, will be one of them.

“He doesn’t know I’m here,” she said. That’s why she’s sitting in the back.

She speaks with great pride of her young son and the generosity and self-endeavor he has shown in contributing to the community.

It was not something that was required of him at school, Moe said.

“He just found ways to get involved. It started out when he began going to the Issaquah Community Center. I’m a single mother, so we were always looking for things for him to do. He would go to the center for different activities. And then two years ago they asked him if he would like to come in and help out.”

Curtis took to helping those in the community like a fish to water, and was soon raising his hand to help whenever he could.

“He put in more than 200 hours last year,” Moe said.

Curtis was one of about 20 volunteers and community activists honored by the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce at the Community Awards Luncheon on Tuesday afternoon.

“This is a time when volunteerism and community activism is so vital to the strength of our communities,” said Alan Boeker, the President of the event’s major sponsor, Port Blakely Communities. “Everyday we see the benefits that volunteers bring to the city of Issaquah.”

Boeker praised the dedication and hard work of the hundreds of volunteers and community groups that work in all facets of life in the city, before opening the floor to the awards presentation.