Dawnmarie Salmons, 25, was honored on Tuesday with an award named for Dawnn Jaffier, the youth worker who was tragically killed in a shooting during the Jouvert celebration on Blue Hill Avenue in 2014.

The Light of Dawnn Award is bestowed upon unsung heroes on the front lines of nonprofit, community, and government work. Salmons, a Dorchester native, said she is beyond honored.

“I’m blessed. I’m blessed to be recognized this way, and to be doing the work that I’m doing right now,” she told the Reporter.

Salmons works at the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, where she utilizes her passion for music to not only instill hope in the lives of the kids, but also give them the chance to help others.

“They always know they can put a smile on someone else’s faces with music,” said Salmons. “That’s a gift.”

Salmons has been attending the Boys and Girls Club since she was 12 years old, working her way up through junior and adult staff. She completed her undergraduate degree at Berklee College of Music and is currently attending Berklee for her graduate work in music therapy.

Noreen McMahon, 45 the program director at the Highland Street Foundation— which helped to creation of the award —sees Salmons as an example of an amazing young women who is just getting started in her career, like Jaffier.

“[Dawnmarie] has a gift. She is able to connect all of these dots, between the kids and herself, but also with the kids and the greater community. She shows the kids how to become apart of the place that they live,” said McMahon.

After the awards ceremony, McMahon noted, Dawnmarie, who was selected from a competitive applicant pool of 50 for the award, was finished with the attention.

“She was saying to her family, ‘Okay, enough, I have to get back to work’ when they were walking out into the parking lot. I think that shows the level of dedication we are working with, here.”