Ron and Brenda Samchuk

For many rural towns, community life simply would not flourish without individuals like Ron and Brenda Samchuk who truly exude the spirit of community.

The epitome of model citizens, their long history of volunteerism spans over 35 years, countless organizations and thousands of hours of volunteer service. Founding members of the Birtle Community Media Committee in 1983, they have produced numerous videos for the community’s television station including school dramas, council meetings and specials for the Access History show, averaging between 500 to 800 volunteer hours every year. Instrumental in the town’s Millennium Celebrations and long time volunteers with the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, Brenda has also been a 4-H leader for 25 years, volunteered with the Ag Society Board for 35 years and served as the RM of Birtle representative for eight years on the Prairie Mountain Tourism Committee.

Ron was involved with the Birtle E.M.O. group for 5 years, has served on the museum board for the last five years and has served as a Volunteer Accredited Examiner for amateur radio licenses and is a Board member of the Manitoba Amateur Radio Museum.

V. Gail Bodman

A key leader in the Selkirk community for over 40 years, Gail has endlesses contributed her time and organizational skills to a myriad of projects and fundraising endeavors. Gail has contributed approximately 1,000 hours a year as the Board and Fund Development Chair with the Selkirk & District Community Foundation since 2003 and was instrumental in increasing their Endowment Fund by $1 million in a 3-year period.

•  Gail also volunteers over 300 hours a year as President of the Rotary Ann Club of Selkirk, where she has volunteered since 1988 , 11 years with the Notre Dame Catholic Church and over 10,000 hours with the selkirk kinette club, where she has a perfect attendance record over 18 years of service. 

Renee Kaplan

Using her gift of leadership and compassion, Renee established the Oak Park Community Service Committee in 1999. Over the next ten years, her passion and motivation to help those in need mobilized hundreds of students to reach out to families experiencing tragedies. She also organized school-wide assemblies and week-long events to raise thousands of dollars for local and international charities. Since 2000, she has helped raise over $50,0000 for various fundraising projects including UNICEF campaigns, 30-Hour Famines, Cerebral Palsy Bike Races and the Oak Park Games for Cancer.

Renee also helped implement the Youth in Philanthropy program at Oak Park in 1999 and since then has organized the program for more than 250 students.

Doug O'Brien

A well respected leader who always goes above and beyond, Doug has volunteered countless hours for numerous committees and volunteer groups. An outstanding ambassador in the Flin Flon community, Doug is a founding Board member of Community Futures Greenstone and was instrumental in bringing the federal initiative to the area, providing economic and business development assistance and loans for new and expanding small businesses.

Currently Doug is Chair of Greenstone Training Inc., the Northern Pregnancy Crisis Centre, Director of Operation Red Nose Flin Flon and the HudBay Minerals Inc. 80th Anniversary Fund, which will invest $1 million over a five-year period to local non-profit organizations to enhance the community’s quality of life.

Jean Fisher

Always the kind of person to take charge of a situation, Jean was instrumental in starting a weekly bingo in her community in 1967. For four decades, the bingo had a dramatic impact improving the Mariapolis community, raising and donating $224,603 for local sports clubs, churches and many other causes between 1993 and 2006 alone. On numerous occasions, Jean has also stepped in to fill a need in the community and helped reallocate resources and mobilize volunteers to save a number of community organizations and events including their local 4-H Club.

Douglas Hincliffe

An enthusiastic and visionary leader, Doug Hincliffe has been an active volunteer for over 40 years but it was his foresight to create a community foundation that will benefit generations for years to come. In 2005, Doug originated and served as the first chairman of the newly created Community Foundation of Swan Valley with the goal of raising $400,000 in four years. To date, the group has already raised more than $750,000. He has also volunteered for over 40 years with the local Air Cadet Squadron and the St. Andrew’s United Church.

Justina Hop

Justina Hop has given freely of her time and talents in her community for more than 20 years and many local, regional and provincial organizations have benefited from her innovative ideas and ability to mobilize other volunteers.

Always willing to lend a helping hand, Justina has been a member of the Crow Wing Women’s Institute for 22 years and has held the office of President and President-elect for four years, as well as currently serving as President-Elect for the Provincial Board. 

She also sits on the Workplace Health and Safety Special Agriculture Advisory Board representing the Women’s Institute and the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, and was a 4-H Project Leader for 12 years. Congratulations to an exemplary volunteer, justina hop of Tolstoi.

Lieutenant Governor's Vice Regal Award

Ron and Brenda Samchuk

For many rural towns, community life simply would not flourish without individuals like Ron and Brenda Samchuk who truly exudes the spirit of community.

The epitome of model citizens, their long history of volunteerism spans over 35 years, countless organizations and thousands of hours of volunteer service. Founding members of the Birtle Community Media Committee in 1983, they have produced numerous videos for the community’s television station including school dramas, council meetings and specials for the Access History show, averaging between 500 to 800 volunteer hours EVERY year. Instrumental in the town’s Millennium Celebrations and long time volunteers with the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, Brenda has also been a 4-H leader for 25 years, volunteered with the Ag Society Board for 35 years and served as the RM of Birtle representative for eight years on the Prairie Mountain Tourism Committee.

Ron was involved with the Birtle E.M.O. group for 5 years, has served on the museum board for the last five years and has served as a Volunteer Accredited Examiner for amateur radio licenses and is a Board member of the Manitoba Amateur Radio Museum.

Volunteer Manitoba Awards for Outstanding Community Leadership

Rural: Jean Comte, Notre Dame des Lourdes

A dedicated community leader and volunteer for over 35 years in the Norte Dame de Lourdes community, Jean Comte has devoted himself to promoting community spirit and sustaining many grassroots initiatives.

Instrumental in developing the Notre Dame Arena in 1976, Jean has been an active Board member of the facility ever since to ensure its long-term viability and can often be found at the arena pitching in with everything from meeting delivery trucks and volunteering at hockey tournaments to coordinating volunteers and ice time. He has also been an active committee member of the local community hall committee since 1990, spends countless hours each year volunteering at the annual baseball tournament and curling bonspiel, which he was a founding member of 28 years ago.

Winnipeg: Siloam Mission

Everyday, Siloam Mission receives over 500 people experiencing poverty, addiction, abuse, illness and homelessness. Serving Winnipeg’s inner city since 1987, Siloam Mission is a connecting point between the compassionate and Winnipeg’s less fortunate and provides meals, clothing, shelter, health care, employment training and support at no charge to those experiencing homelessness. Without the support of Siloam Mission and the tremendous support of its donors and volunteers, many of these individuals would not have a warm meal or a roof over their head during the cold winter months.

Each year, 7,398 individual volunteers and 653 volunteer groups volunteer a remarkable 46,391 hours  working at the Mission’s frontline services, including serving over 183,000 meals, 26,766 shelter stays and 3,000 Health Centre visits.

Without the compassion and dedication of these volunteers, many of these individuals would not receive the support they need.

Premiers Voluntary Service Awards

Individual Category

Jim Mulligan

A dedicated, caring and compassionate individual with a special ability to connect with people, Jim Mulligan has been volunteering with Sunset Palliative Care since its inception in 1994 providing comfort and friendship for individuals at the end of their lives.

Jim has a special way to help individuals find peace and solace while coping with their difficult situations but also guides and encourages them to live well for as long as possible. Though Jim is a very humble and private individual, his techniques on how to first approach and befriend new clients have proved to be great inspiration and insight for new volunteers and were incorporated into the Central Regional Palliative Care Volunteer Training Manual.

Margaret Willis

You might not see the correlation between a Manitoba food mainstay and volunteering immediately, but Margaret Willis has found a way to turn her knack for making perogies into a way to make ‘dough’ for local organizations.

in 1979, Margaret started making perogies and selling them in the community at various events, raising and donating over $32,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society. Now over 80 years old, Margaret has joined the Gateway Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises funds for supportive housing, where she, you guessed it – is selling perogies –donating over $3,000 to date.

Kevin Chief

• Growing up in Winnipeg’s inner city, Kevin Chief knew what it meant to not have a lot of material possessions. But the love of his family and passion for sports projected him to pursue a leadership role within his community.
•  
• Passionate about serving the Aboriginal community, Kevin’s involvement on a number of boards and committee is one way he is able to influence change is his community. He has volunteered with the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg since 2005, sat on the proposal selection committee for the Centre of Aboriginal Human Resource Development, sits on the Board for Neeginan Development Corporation, was the volunteer basketball coach of Team Manitoba at the 2002 North American Indigenous Games and is the Métis Pavilion Coordinator at Folkorama.

Barbara Culbertson

The driving force behind hundreds of volunteers, Barbara has been a dedicated and committed volunteer with the MTS Volunteers for over 30 years and has contributed thousands of hours to numerous events.

•  An inspirational leader and mentor to other volunteers, Barb volunteered as Building Coordinator for the MTS Employee Trust (ECT) from 1981 to 1985 and was an ECT committee member until 2005 and was a member of the Workplace Safety and Health Team for 21 years. While representing her building in the MTS Pioneers Group for 12 years, she hosted various projects and fundraisers and held numerous key positions including President and Fundraising Chair.
•  
• Barbara also volunteers over 100 hours every year with Daughters of the Nile and helped raise $55,000 at a fundraiser to assist those affected by hurricanes in Cuba and Haiti.
•  
• Youth Category

Kanwal Brar

Kanwal and a dedicated group of health sciences students created the Winnipeg Interprofessional Student-Run Health  - or WISH - Clinic that strives to bring equality of health services to the Point Douglas community, which was recently identified as having the poorest overall health in Winnipeg.

•  The WISH Clinic model also provides students from other disciplines such as nursing, and dentistry the opportunity to develop skills while learning about inner city issues and social needs. Under his leadership, the students developed planning and vision documents for the clinic and met with community leaders and medical professionals to discuss their support. As a result of their hard work, the clinic is slated to open at Mount Carmel this winter.
•  
• Kanwal has also been an active volunteer with the United Way in various aspects over the past three years.

Catherine Tetrault

In a small community where access to extra-curricular activities is limited, alcohol and drugs can become an issue with students. After a fellow student was killed this past summer in a drinking and driving accident, Catherine had a personal goal to instill awareness amongst her peers of the dangers of addictions and driving under the influence.

Taking full responsibility in planning and organization National Addictions Week, Catherine initiated and coordinated all events relating to the week including a mock car crash, a reality game called ‘consequential choices’ and to further emphasize the impact of addiction-related consequences, created a powerful mock memorial service with a local funeral home to honour four “deceased” students, which had a profound effect on everyone in attendance due to the recent tragedy.

•  Thanks to her efforts, many students and the community became much more aware of the realities of addictions and how their choices can impact the lives of others.
• An outstanding student, community leader and role model, congratulations again to Catherine.

Community Groups Category

Pilot Mound Millenium Recreation Complex

In 1999, the Pilot Mound community found itself with a curling rink, hockey arena and other facilities quickly deteriorating. the community decided to embark on a long journey of raising funds for a new 46,000 sq. foot multiplex with all the amenities they required to serve the community.

•  Volunteers young and old came forward to help with construction and Through hundreds of fundraisers, the fundraising committee has raised $2.5 million and only need to raise another $700,000 to reach their goal.
•  
• After 10 long years in the making and with the heart and soul of the community and countless hours of sweat equity, the Pilot Mound Millennium Recreation Complex is one step closer to opening its doors for the community and future generations to enjoy.

Winnipeg Ostomy Association

The Winnipeg Ostomy Association is a volunteer-based health organization and the only support group in the province for Manitoba’s approximately 3,000 ostomy patients.

•  In the past, the stigma related to ostomy surgery was so great it caused patients to keep their condition a secret. Information was scarce and support nonexistent. Thanks to W.O.A. and its volunteers, information and support for patients and their families from others who have experienced similar surgeries is now readily available.
•  
• Through the Visitation Program, these dedicated volunteers make approximately 100 visits each year, helping new patients restore self-confidence as individuals, encourage them to live normal lives and offer practical information and assist patients and their families in their emotional and social rehabilitation.

Carberry Super Troopers

• After the recent restructuring of CFB Shilo, Carberry received many families looking to settle in the community and local residents saw the need to provide support to these military families who would be dealing with the overwhelming reality of a spouse being deployed to a foreign country. Grade 11 student Raelyn McIntosh also understood that these families were going through a time of isolation, loneliness and uncertainty and mobilized a group of students who are affectionately known as the ‘Super Troopers’.
•  
• This group of 47 students supported these families by offering child care, implementing a weekly after school program and assisting the wives with household chores. The program which operated March to September 2008 also inspired a similar program at Balmoral Hall in Winnipeg.

Mayors Volunteer Service Awards

Maple Leaf Elementary School

Whether it’s selling poppies for the Royal Canadian Legion or food drives for Winnipeg Harvest, these young volunteers from Maple Leaf School – some only in kindergarten – warm everyone’s hearts with their sense of community.

Student leaders at the school assist with planning, organizing and implementing a variety of charitable campaigns each year including the gold heart campaign with Variety, participating in the Terry Fox Run for cancer research and collecting donations for The Winnipeg Humane Society and food hampers for the Christmas Cheer Board.

River East Neighborhood Network Trail Committee

The River East Neighbourhood Network Trail Committee has been instrumental in the development of the North East Pioneers Greenway between Raleigh and Gateway. This active corridor is of incredible benefit to the community, providing a 6 kilometres path for recreational activites including walking and biking. 

With an active volunteer base of 25 community members, the impact of the trail serves over 22,000 people. the volunteers are also actively pursuing ecologically friendly practices such as protection and educational material for the existing habitat along the trail and restoration projects including mobilizing other community members to plant trees to add to the greenspace.

The volunteers have also raised funds to further enhance the parkway by adding lighting fixtures and shelters while planning a number of natural heritage restoration and preservation activities.

Jim Beckta

Known around the neigbourhood as “the plant guy”, Jim has volunteered with the Immigrant & Refugee Organization of Manitoba since 2007. With a background as a greenhouse grower, Jim dedicates approximately 20 hours a week into an innovative greening project with new immigrants in downtown Winnipeg, utilizing large, underused balconies as container gardens with the residents.

Since many of these newcomers have agricultural backgrounds in their home countries, he was able to develop this unique program to recognize their skills and capacities and provide a sense of value while providing these families who live on tight budgets the opportunity to grow their own fresh food.

Through his unique program, Jim has instilled a sense of community with these new residents while increasing a greater understanding of sustainable urban development.

Good Neighbours Senior Centre

Developed after a large donation in 2002, a team of volunteers opened the Good Neighbours Bookstore with an initial goal of raising funds to support the many programs and services at the centre.

One year later, another group of volunteers decided to add gently used clothing and small household items, and the Treasure Cove thrift store was added. The volunteers quickly realized they were not only providing a service to residents of the centre, but rather serving an area of the city that housed a high population of seniors and low income residents. These enthusiastic volunteers banded together to build shelves, stock the store advertise and train other volunteers.

Currently there are 62 volunteers actively involved at the store, contributing over 6,100 hours annually and generating close to $30,000 in support of more than 40 programs at the centre.

Bookworm Group, Grace Hospital

The Grace Hospital Auxiliary consists of over 300 volunteers but the small group of 17 individuals who operate the Bookworms program have been dedicated volunteers since 1990 and have raised over $200,300 for patient care to date.

Working diligently to collect donations of current magazines and slightly used books, the Bookworm members play an integral role in the overall success of the program and sales. Each week, 12 members organize, clean, price and categorize the books for resale. Twice a year they organize a large book sale, where the volunteers contributed over 480 hours over the course of the sale.

Teens Making A Connection

In 2007, the Transcona Community Network committee hosted a safety forum and invited selected students to participate in the forum, voicing their opinions on issues affecting the area’s youth.

At the forum, students saw a need to band together and face issues including bullying, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, peer pressure and self esteem issues among others and formed the Teens Making a Connection committee.

Now meeting monthly, the students discuss various ways of creating an impact with their peers. The group has hosted events with motivational speakers, writing contests and held a powerful event called ‘The Day of the Dead’, where students dressed in black and did not speak for the entire day, depicting students who were killed as a result of a drunk driver. The event had a huge impact with other students and helped raise awareness for alcohol abuse and the consequences of bad decisions.

Junior Chamber International - Winnipeg

There is a common misconception that today’s youth are continuously asking ‘what can my city offer me?”

On the contrary, the young members of JCI Winnipeg – also known as the jaycees – are usually asking what they can do for their members and the communities they serve.

Most notably, the Jaycees organizes the annual PowerSmart-Winnipeg Jaycees Santa Claus Parade, bringing over 125,000 people to the streets of downtown Winnipeg to welcome the holiday’s favourite ‘visitor’. Over 100 Jaycee members and their family volunteer countless hours each year budgeting, organizing and preparing the parade and floats, ensuring the parade is a success. In addition to hosting one of Winnipeg’s marquee holiday attractions, JCI Winnipeg members also volunteer every year at Adopt a Park, Siloam Mission, Winnipeg Harvest and the Christmas Cheer Board.

Dr. Tana Gilmartin

Saul Sair Health Centre was developed to meet the needs of those who are homeless and others who also access the services at Siloam Mission including street-involved people and those at risk of homelessness. The Health Centre’s services are provided with great pride and care by professionals and offered free of charge without discrimination, including dental services.

The dental program at the Centre functions mainly because of selfless individuals like Dr. Tana Gilmartin who donate their time to serve Winnipeg’s less fortunate. Since the summer of 2007, Dr. Gilmartin has volunteered her time weekly to serve the inner-city population. Her active participation in the community and support serves as an example for others to follow and has helped make the dental program the success it is today.

Edward Carriere

Through Edward’s volunteer efforts over the past few winters, the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre skating rink and ice was kept pristine and free of vandalism so youth and adults in the inner city neighbourhood had a proper venue to skate during the winter. Arriving at the centre at the crack of dawn on many cold winter mornings, Edward helped purchase equipment to maintain the ice and volunteered doing rink maintenance such as shoveling the rink and flooding the ice, making the centre one of the most coveted rinks in the inner city.

In addition to his volunteer efforts providing a place to skate, Edward has also been an active volunteer for many years on the West Broadway Business Improvement Zone Board.

Laura Milner White Committee

The Laura Milner White Committee was inspired by the life, work and commitment of Laura White. Nine years ago, Laura became a mentor to a single father and “unofficial” Big Sister to two of his young daughters. Closely involved in their lives, Laura died in August 2005 and a group of her friends and her husband formed a committee to honour her commitment to education and youth needing financial assistance.

Made up of 10 core members and 25 other volunteers, these dedicated volunteers have raised over $124,000 through three major fundraising events each year and have made a huge impact improving the lives of children in the community by donating books, organizing clothing drives, offering music lessons as well as an inner city soccer league among countless other events.

They have also raised $43,000 for the Mulvey School play structure project and continually look for new ways to recruit and motivate other volunteers.

RBC Royal Bank Local Hero Award

Wendy Macdonald

HSBC Bank Canada Business Award

Friesens Corporation

A leader in the Altona community since its inception in 1907, Friesens continues to play an integral role in developing numerous projects through their financial support and mobilizaton of their staff as volunteers.

During the town’s Millennium celebrations in 1997, staff volunteered and assisted with fundraising efforts for a new nature park, aquatic centre, walking trails, multiplex recreational centre and community centre. In 2007, they once again came to the forefront with the community, developing the beautiful Gallery in the Park, promoting art, culture and the town’s heritage. Thanks to their leadership, corporate fundraising efforts and countless volunteer hours by staff, this $1.2 million project became a reality.

Royal Lepage

Over the past 10 years, Royal LePage and the agents at Royal LePage Dynamic, Royal LePage Prime Realty, Royal Le Page Top Producers and Royal LePage Alliance, have become champions to help end domestic violence in winnipeg.

This philosophy is imbedded in their corporate culture and is the mission of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation, Canada’s largest corporate foundation dedicated exclusively to funding women’s shelters and violence prevention.

Locally, agents at these four offices have organized many fundraising events over the past 10 years, raising close to $73,000 for Osborne House in support of services and solutions and women and children in need and continually advocate for domestic violence prevention in their communication materials. Agents also give a portion of their commission in support of Osborne House programs and services.

Investors Group Arts and Culture Award

The Life and Art Centre - Roblin

In 2004, after many renovations and upgrades, the congregation of the United Church in Roblin voted to build a new church, leaving the 96-year old Knox United Church building vacant and vulnerable to deterioration. A group of community members concerned about saving the historic community monument organized a committee to save the building.

After a number of meetings, they decided to create a venue to celebrate art, culture and heritage and the building was gifted to them in 1995 and the Life & Art Centre was born.

Since then, a team of volunteers have spent an incredible amount of time upgrading the building and holding fundraising events for the new facility.
The new Life & Art Centre has held many events since it was saved including theatre performances, literary readings, concerts and wine tastings. The Centre is also home to the Roblin Dance Club, community meetings, private functions, conferences and most recently a new Community Theatre Group.

Art City

Ten years ago, celebrated local artist Wanda Koop had a dream and vision to create a centre to engage and inspire people through art.

After a decade of cutting-edge programming, Art City is celebrating its 10th anniversary and has flourished into a nationally recognized and precedent-setting model for community art programming, thanks to its core of hundreds of equally dedicated volunteers who are integral in providing over 300 programming days each year. 

Participating in various capacities over the past decade, there have been over 30 Directors on the Board, over 100 weekly volunteers and more than 150 other individuals who have given freely of their time, inspiring other organizations in Manitoba and across Canada to explore art as a way to address a wide variety of community needs.

The Golden Hand Award For Media

Gladwynn Scott - Carberry News Express

Attracting local media attention can be a daunting task for many small non-profit organizations or programs. However, thanks to the support of Gladwyn Scott and the Carberry News Express, a unique cause was able to garner additional coverage for their efforts due to the ongoing commitment to their community in local media.

Earlier tonight we heard about the Carberry Collegiate ‘Super Troopers’, who took on tasks for spouses of soldiers posted to active duty overseas. After covering the group’s efforts in the Carberry News Express, Their inspirational story also caught the attention of other media outlets, resulting in additional exposure for the student group. After attracting the additional media coverage, the group was invited to speak at Balmoral Hall and has served as a role model for other similar projects.

Corus Radio

Each month, Winnipeg Harvest provides emergency food assistance to over 40,000 individuals including 18,000 children. Despite Manitobans’ generosity, the organization still finds it difficult to meet the demand of an annual cash operating cost of $60,000 designated for purchasing infant formula.

Together with Corus Radio, Winnipeg Harvest created Hunger for Hope, a fundraising initiative to raise money for the operational cost of formula. Launched in May 2008, the campaign has already raised more than $100,000 in donations due to over $290,000 in in-kind support and the promotional efforts of CJOB, Power 97 and Groove FM, who have truly embraced Winnipeg Harvest’s motto of ‘Because no child should go to bed hungry.’