Immigrant Achievement Awards and great volunteers
As a Volunteer Coordinator, I consider a very important part of my job to be recognizing volunteers for their contributions. These contributions are not always about the Galt, but often about the overall person - their volunteering with not only our organization, but other organizations as well.
January and February tend to be busy months for me as there are quite a few awards handed out in the spring. Each year, for example, we nominate youth volunteers for Leaders of Tomorrow awards. We are very fortunate to have winners of this award from our volunteer core every year!
This year, for the first time ever, Lethbridge Family Services - Immigrant Services is having an event to hand out Immigrant Achievement Awards. They are coordinating this event, which will see ethnic foods, entertainment and of course, awards for deserving individuals and businesses.
The award categories include: Arts/Culture, Youth, Community Service, Distinguished Professional, and more. The Galt staff picked 6 individuals to nominate for this, the first year of the awards, and we were fortunate to have nominees for most of the categories.
The Galt's nominees are:
John Wilson
volunteer in exhibit design and construction; involved in the community on civic committees and boards
Ian McKenna
retired UofL prof; volunteers with special events at the museum; uses his law skills and knowledge to volunteer as an arbitrator, mainly with a focus on human rights legislations
Alex Lawson Sr
a minister who also volunteers with the Galt with special events; started up the Family Life Centre in Saskatchewan and has become quite a well known expert in Transactional Analysis
Georgette Cassis
an all around Galt volunteer who also has volunteered with many other organizations and is very involved in volunteering with her church in many capacities
Jedmarc Evangelista
co-owner of Lethbridge Web Design, Jeddy became a Galt volunteer when he surprised us with a website he created for one of our fundraisers, when he heard we were looking for some web ideas and support. Since then, he and his business have supported the Galt in a variety of ways.
Anine Vonkeman
one of the Galt's staff, Anine came to the Galt in 2004 for the newly created Marketing/Communications Officer position. She has been instrumental in getting our presence on the internet and is frequently asked to speak at conferences and other training sessions on marketing using the web and other current tools
We invite you to join us on March 20th as we celebrate all six of our nominees, as well as the many other deserving individuals from our community. And mark your calendar for 2011 - nominate someone yourself next January because there are probably countless deserving individuals who won't be nominated this first year.