James and Shirley Bailey of Rossmoor honored as Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Citizens of the Year at 2012 Americana Awards

The following information was released by Cypress College.

James and Shirley Bailey are the Citizen of the Year from Los Alamitos/Rossmoor for the Cypress College Foundation’s 37th Annual Americana Awards. The Americana Awards, sponsored by Union Bank, N.A., were held on Saturday, February 25, 2012 in the Disneyland Hotel’s Grand Ballroom.

Residents of Rossmoor for 40+ years, James and Shirley Bailey seem to always find time to make their community a better place. James has been on the Board of Directors of the Los Alamitos Youth Center (he’s past president), the Chamber of Commerce, was active in Los Alamitos Little League, and is involved with his church. Over the years he has also donated over 14 gallons of blood, in order “to help pay back what I received recovering from my war wounds.”

Shirley is a past President of the Women’s Club and has served on the Mayflower pre-school board. In 2003, she was awarded the Laurel High School’s “Heroes of the Heart” award for her service to students. She has also been recognized by the Cal State Long Beach Alumni Association for her service as
International Alumni Chairperson. When Rush Park was established, she helped plant and care for trees, developing an extremely successful incentive program through which residents could “adopt a tree.”

Here’s a video of James and Shirley Bailey talking about winning the Citizen of the Year award:

Featured photo

Shirley and James Bailey of Rossmoor (center) at the Americana ceremony accepting their award as Cypress Citizen of the Year from Cypress College President Michael Kasler (right). They were was escorted by Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar (left). Photo by George Fenton of Fenton Photography.