Don “Red Dog” Gardner received Lawrence Bank’s Star of Excellence Award during a reception Friday at Anschutz Sports Pavilion at Kansas University.

Gardner, a former Lawrence police officer, is leader of “Red Dog’s Dog Days,” a community fitness program founded in 1984 that attracts hundreds of participants each session. He has been a volunteer trainer for Lawrence High School athletics programs, and now works part time as supervisor of attendance takers for Kansas Athletics Inc., overseeing 25 other part-timers who help collect athletes’ attendance records.

Lawrence Bank established the award program to recognize people making community contributions, including civic leaders, neighborhood volunteers, police officers, firefighters, military personnel and KU students and staffers.