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Super surprise medal

A friend told Phil McIntyre-Paul that she didn’t really know what the word meant until she saw his face last Wednesday.
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Honoured: Senator Nancy Greene Raine pins the Queen’s Jubilee Medal on Phil McIntyre-Paul during a ceremony held Wednesday at city hall.

Gobsmacked.

A friend told Phil McIntyre-Paul that she didn’t really know what the word meant until she saw his face last Wednesday when he walked into a surprise celebration for him at city hall.

“Honestly, I was completely overwhelmed and humbled. What an honour,” said the perennially humble McIntyre-Paul.

Dozens of people conspired to set up the celebration where he was presented with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal by Canadian Senator Nancy Green Raine for his considerable leadership and work with the Shuswap Trail Alliance. Somehow, the secret remained intact.

“It was remarkable. I honest to goodness thought I was going to a meeting that Mayor Cooper had called; she said Senator Raine was coming in and wanted to talk about greenways and trails.”

He said the meeting made sense, because he and trail booster-extraordinaire John Coffey, who recently died, had spent time last fall with Raine, looking at trail development.

“This is a community award, it’s about people working together, we should be sharing this around,” he emphasized, adding that John Coffey should be wearing the medal.

“What a privilege. Again with that huge sense of gratitude, it’s acknowledgment for what everybody is saying – we need to rethink how we live and think and move in our communities and the landscape around us. That’s what we’ve been doing. And to have it recognized on a national level... This isn’t about trails, it’s about how we live and breathe. We’re saying it’s time to do it differently. All communities in the region are doing this. The First Nations communities are saying ‘Hey it’s nice of you to finally arrive. This is how we’ve been doing and living in the landscape.’”

The previous weekend, Cindy Derkaz was presented with a Queen’s Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the Shuswap Community Foundation, the Shuswap Film Society, the Salmon Arm Nature Bay Enhancement Society, the Shuswap Art Gallery Association and the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society.”

Other Shuswap residents who received Queen’s Jubilee medals earlier this summer for their considerable contributions to their communities were:

•Jeffrey Smith of Salmon Arm;

•Duncan Myers of Sorrento;

•Jack Bowers of Salmon Arm;

•Brig.-Gen. Peter Kilby of Salmon Arm;

•Lt-Col. John Bagshaw of Blind Bay

•Philip Wright of Salmon Arm;

•Delores Mori of Salmon Arm;

•Dr. Brian Ayotte of Salmon Arm:

•Douglas Adams of Salmon Arm;

•Al Oster of Salmon Arm;

•Chief Nelson Leon of Chase; and

•former RCMP inspector Mark Dibblee of Enderby.



Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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