Nominations open for annual local volunteer awards

The GPVSB Volunteer of the Year Awards recognizes one individual and one company/corporation in the Grande Prairie region for outstanding contributions to the community through their support & acts of volunteerism in the non-profit sector and/or community within the last year.

The Leaders of Tomorrow Awards recognizes youth living in the Grande Prairie area who have helped make outstanding contributions to their community through volunteerism.

This year, the Leaders of Tomorrow Awards will recognize individuals in two different age groups. Those aged 13-15 and 16-18 are eligible for nominations in Leadership, Volunteering, Advocacy& Perseverance catagories.

Two of the awards are also up for grabs from the City of Grande Prairie. This was done as a result of the city normally giving out their volunteer awards around the winter time.

The George Repka Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made a major contribution in the areas of recreation, culture, or social services to the community.

The Bill Bowes Volunteer Organization of the Year Award recognizes volunteer organizations or foundations in Grande Prairie that have provided outstanding contributions to the community through meritorious service, voluntary contributions and exemplary community development having a direct, positive effect on residents of the City of Grande Prairie.

This year, the awards will be presented on December 8, which is just several days after International Volunteer Day.

Carol-Anne Pasemko is the Executive Director of the Grande Prairie Volunteer Services Bureau, she says its great that they will finally be able to give out the awards.

“We are going to be doing things a little differently because of the public health crisis. We can’t for example open it up (the event) to the general public, so we are going to some other kinds of things like film it, put it out on social media. Each of the award recipients would have one guest that would come for breakfast, that kind of thing, it’s going to be different but fun.”

According to Pasemko, the award structure has changed a little this year. She says they hope that more nominations can be made amongst the youth who help out in the community.

“Generally speaking, for the youth, we’ll get between four to six youth nominated in their age groups and this year we changed it a bit, so the awards are more specific. They were so vague before that we would have trouble getting enough nominations in, so we kind of tightened things up and divided them up into four separate categories within the age groups, and we are hoping that makes a difference.”

She says that normally six to eight youths get nominated for the awards.

Pasemko says that out of all of the awards there is one she looks forward too, and that is the Outstanding Citizen Award.

“We are aware of different people who volunteer in the community, who nobody really says much about. We just kind of choose six of them each year, and say come on down and have some breakfast and have a trophy.”

Those that are interested in nominating a volunteer for an award are invited to do so by visiting the Grande Prairie Volunteer Services Bureau website.

The deadline for nominations is Monday, November 2.

by Shane Clausing

Nominations open for annual local volunteer awards

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