Since she moved from northern Virginia 10 years ago, Doan Tucker has enjoyed becoming a part of the Bordentown community and has done her best to give back to the town in many different ways.
She has worked alongside her husband, the Rev. Matthew Tucker of Christ Episcopal Church, to provide different avenues to help people in Bordentown and across Burlington County who are in need.
Her efforts have been recognized by her peers and the county as Tucker was named 2020 Outstanding Burlington County Woman of the Year for her community service.
“Bordentown is a great community to be a part of,” Tucker said. “I try to help my church and the community in the ways I can. It’s amazing to see people respond and step up to help.”
It was earlier this year that Tucker was nominated by friends Heather Cheeseman, Sruti Desai and Rebecca Carson Collins for the Burlington County Outstanding Woman of the Year award that is given out through the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
The Burlington County Women’s Advisory Council had 20 county residents determine that Tucker met the qualification and selected her for the community service award.
There were a total of nine women selected as a Woman of the Year honoree for this year.
The council acts as a platform for women in the county to advocate issues that are going on in their communities.
When Tucker heard in March that she was receiving the honor, she was surprised as she didn’t even know that her peers nominated her, she said.
Tucker admits she is a very shy person. She likes to work behind the scenes and not get the attention for all the work she is doing to help the community.
“It’s a religious way of doing things for me,” Tucker said. “I have learned to love my neighbor like I love myself. I’m not looking for recognition.”
When Tucker isn’t out in the community, she is working part-time as a graphic designer.
Tucker said she had the honor of working with many women throughout the Bordentown area and in Burlington County to help those in need.
Through the church, Tucker has been able to set up many forums of philanthropic opportunities to lend support to important needs surrounding the community.
The Bordentown Laundry Project is one of Tucker’s works that helps provide residents free laundry every third Wednesday of the month at the Rivertown Laundromat. Tucker and a host of volunteers help collect laundry detergent and quarters that they distribute to the residents.
For Burlington County residents, Tucker teamed up with the Burlington County Newborns In Need chapter to help collect baby products and diapers to give out to parents in the county who are struggling to provide for their babies.
She helps cook and provide meals to 150-250 troops that live at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, while also organizing hot meals to be delivered to families staying in motels through the HomeFront program every month.
Tucker also helps sort and give out food at local food banks, collects item for the women’s shelter and gathers items for families that are displaced because of fires.
Other community service acts that Tucker is involved in include creating food trains to serve families recovering from an illness or a family loss and giving water out to participants running in the annual Bordentown Regional School District 5K event.
She also works with local civic groups like the Elks Lodge, the Kiwanis Club, the Rotary Club, local fire departments, emergency medical services, and police departments in feeding the hungry and bringing joy around the holidays.
“I like to do the work behind the scenes to help the community,” Tucker said. “The best part of it is people seeing what we do and joining us to help out the community.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Burlington County Woman of the Year honoree continues to lend a helping hand to the community, collecting more than 2,000 masks for frontline workers.
Tucker was officially honored for her award on June 15 when the Burlington County Women’s Advisory Council aired a special virtual celebration on the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders’ YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8bWznPkj6Y&t=2s
The award ceremony was scheduled to take play in late March and was pushed back to June in the hopes it could be done in-person, according to Tucker.
In her acceptance speech video, Tucker talked about how the relationships she made with other women when working different projects helped in making a difference in the community.
“I think that success in most endeavors comes from building friendships based on trust, and if one can gather people together with trust and with a goal in mind, great things can happen,” Tucker said in the video.
Tucker also touched upon her upbringing and her parents taking the risk of fleeing Vietnam during the war when her mother was pregnant with her and coming over to the United States.
She added that she tries to emulate her parents’ ways of serving God and the community in her everyday life.
As she continues to find ways to help give back to the Bordentown community, Tucker is happy to have found a great place to call home and hopes her work can inspire more people to give back to their communities.
“If we strive to be our best self, we can serve others in our communities and beyond,” she said.