The Lee County Board of County Commissioners today named Robbie Roepstorff of Sanibel as the recipient of the Paulette Burton Citizen of the Year award for 2008. She is the 21st recipient – and first Sanibel resident – to receive the annual award.

Roepstorff was honored for her efforts as the chairperson of the Lee County Horizon Council and as the president of the Horizon Foundation, the fund-raising arm of the Horizon Council.

She has been a member of the Lee County Industrial Development Authority serving as its treasurer and served on the Florida Transportation Commission. Additionally, she has been the director of the Edison Ford Winter Estates Foundation, the Foundation of the Lee County Public Schools, Director of the Uncommon Friends Foundation, and director and president of the American Heart Association.

Nine runners up were also acknowledged at the commissioners’ meeting today. They included Jay Anderson of Fort Myers, Christina Crawfis of Fort Myers, Gayle Edwards of Fort Myers, Brian Griffin and Kathy Malone of Matlacha, Helen Kralj of Bonita Springs, T. Wayne and Mavis Miller of Fort Myers and Joyce Sanders of Fort Myers.

The Burton Citizen of the Year award was created in 1991 in honor of Burton, a long-time Sanibel resident and government watchdog. She spent many years serving as a voice of the people to the Lee County Board of County Commissioners as well as playing an active role in Sanibel politics. She died in a 1991 automobile accident.