Michelle O’Rourke

After high school, O’Rourke attended the University of Nebraska on a diving scholarship and eventually moved back to The Woodlands. When she and her husband-to-be decided to run their own local business, she began developing a love for volunteering.

O’Rourke and her husband, Chris, purchased Outback Western Wear on Dobbin Hufsmith Road in Magnolia in 2006 and joined all area chambers of commerce in Magnolia and The Woodlands, which led to opportunities to give back to the community.

“I started realizing I was attracted to programs that had to do with the youth and helping them grow to be productive citizens,” she said.

In 2011, O’Rourke’s volunteering efforts picked up speed. That year the couple established Outback Western Wear as an aid station for the Ironman, where they handed out water to the athletes and prepared food for spectators. The couple discovered the Ironman Foundation allows the aid stations to designate volunteer hours and funds to local nonprofits, and they chose local Future Farmers of America groups as well as Montgomery County Youth Services.

They have kept up organizing aid stations every year since, and O’Rourke has become an Ironman athlete herself. That year she began volunteering with MCYS, acted as chairwoman for The Woodlands Crawfish Festival and participated in Leadership Montgomery County.

But continuing to work with youths and their families has an even deeper meaning for O’Rourke, who is unable to have children of her own.

“I identify with organizations like MCYS that are not only helping kids, but helping families realize how lucky they are to have one another,” she said.

Sarah Rhea, Leadership Montgomery County executive director, met O’Rourke when they helped organize The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce’s Taste of the Town event and describes her as an inspiration.

“After volunteering for Ironman, she decided one day she wanted to be an Ironman,” Rhea said. “She worked hard and accomplished it. That’s Michelle.”