Mick and Susie McMurry Award Winner Announced

According to a press release by the Boys and Girls Club of Central Wyoming, Brad Hopkins was awarded this year’s Mick and Susie McMurry Cowboy Code Try Award.

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Hopkins, as the Executive Director of the Wyoming Rescue Mission, led a capital campaign that tripled the space to allow adequate housing for the homeless.

The Rescue Mission was founded in 1978 by Reveverand Art Munchler, originally named Soul's Anchor, and had two other reverends take over before Hopkins was appointed as executive director in 2012.

Under Hopkins's leadership, the Rescue Mission opened two thrift stores and serves 2,500 people a year.

Hopkins said in the release:

"The biggest tragedy is a bunch of ‘tries’ up on the shelf. Somebody had an idea, a dream, a vision, but then there was this automatic negative thinking that just left that dream up on the shelf," Hopkins said. "When you’ve got ‘the Try’ in you, you never quit."

Hopkins was born in Dallas, Texas, and was the oldest of four siblings and has been married to his wife, Chrissy, for 29 years.

Hopkins worked with the homeless since 1999 at the Denver Rescue Mission, first as a program coordinator and then as director of its family and senior homeless initiative from 2005 to 2012.

He also served as a board member of the Wyoming Homeless Collaborative from 2014 to 2018.

The Mick and Susie McMurry Cowboy Code Try Award, which is a bronze sculpture by local artist Chris Navarro, will be presented to Brad at the 24th Annual Awards and Recognition Breakfast.

The breakfast on Sept. 14 honors Brad and Jan Cundy and will feature a keynote address by Willie Robertson, hunting enthusiast, CEO, and former star of Duck Dynasty.

The event is free, but guests are asked to make a contribution to support the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming.

Last year, the Cundy's were given the Cowboy Code Try Award for their donations to the Rotary Club in honor of their son.