It was a celebration about one of this community’s strongest resources – its volunteers.
Thursday night at the Prestige Harbourfront Resort, 23 of the community’s most deserving volunteers were honoured for their contributions in various areas, including coaches, mentors, community builders, youth volunteers and emergency service helpers.
Shuswap Trail Alliance’s guiding force, Phil McIntyre-Paul was honoured with the night’s most prestigious award as community leader of the year and earned a standing ovation from the 90-plus people in attendance.
“When it came to determine the leader, Phil really stood out,” said Rick Proznick, publisher of the Salmon Arm Observer. “
This was the first time such an event has been held in Salmon Arm, and Proznick says the concept of recognizing volunteers and sharing their contributions to the community fits perfectly with the Observer’s mandate in the community.
“It’s about telling the stories of the people who make such an extraordinary impact on our community and with these awards, we hope it inspires others to volunteer, to use their knowledge, their passion and enthusiasm in whatever area and share that with others.”
In the planning stages of the project, the Observer approached non-profit and community-minded organizations to partner in the project and help nominate candidates for the 10 categories. Public input was solicited for nominations as well.
Various sponsors also came on board to assist in hosting the gala event.
“Everyone seemed to see the value in what we were doing by honouring these volunteers, and they jumped onboard to help,” says Proznick.
From the initial 50 nominations, a selection committee narrowed the field down to 23 finalists.
“It was set up like the Academy Awards, where no one knew the winner,” says Proznick.
The event was so successful, that planning has already begun for next year and there is already a waitlist on sponsorships.
“It was a lot of work, but judging by the response and the positive feedback it was well worth the effort. And I believe we are only scratching the surface as far as recognizing the volunteers out there. There are just so many people deserving of being recognized and honoured.”
This year’s recipients include:
Kari Wilkinson in the Above and Beyond category, with honourable mentions going to Karen Bubola and Deborah Chapman.
Mark Bannister won the coach category, with honourable mention going to Mark Sandau.
Phil Wright won the Community Builder category, with Tracey Kutschker and Bert Revel as honourable mentions.
Garry Hall was the winner of the Courage award.
Tara Stanley won the Emergency Service awards with honourable mention going to Gord Bose.
Jeremy Ayotte won for Environmental volunteer.
Ralph Owens was honoured as a mentor, with Julia Body as an honourable mention.
In the Service Organization volunteer category, Debbie Braby earned top honours, with Ron Hooper and Dennis Hill garnering honourable mentions.
Reg Walters was named youth volunteer winner, with honourable mention going to Rochelle Dale.
In the Volunteer category, George Evenshen took the top spot, while Mary Scheidegger and Eugene Casavant had honourable mentions.