At its annual meeting Sunday night, the Falls Church Citizens for a Better City (CBC) honored Sally Ekfelt as the recipient of its annual Wayne and Jane Dexter Award for meritorious community service. The award has been presented annually since 2001, with previous recipients being Carol DeLong, Bob Perry, Lou Olom, Betty Blystone, Sally Phillips, Brian O’Connor, Edie Smolinski, Cathy Kaye, Steve Sprague and Tom Clinton.

Ekfelt served as president of the Elementary PTA in Falls Church for two terms, and then was elected to the Falls Church School Board from 1994 to 1998, the last two years as its chair. She was president of the CBC from 2010 to 2013 during an important transition period of the organization away from being a non-partisan political party, endorsing candidates for local offices, to its current more general community support role. She launched a model forum to encourage residents to run for City Council and School Board independently, leading a panel of experts on “How to Become a Candidate” for the last two local elections. She has worked to join with leaders of other civic groups to broaden audience participation at its forums. A full-time events planner, her father and brother were both major generals in the military.