While volunteers are abundant in Black Diamond and Turner Valley, getting them to accept recognition is another story.
Suzan Nagel’s search for a Volunteer of the Year Award recipient comes up short some years, prompting her to extend the deadline. It’s something she attributes to a modest population.
Nagel, Black Diamond’s Family and Community Support Services co-ordinator, is accepting nominations for the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award until Feb. 15.
“Sometimes the nominees refuse,” said Nagel. “Some people are okay with public recognition and other people prefer to just keep their volunteering on a more private level. Sometimes they don’t necessarily feel they’re deserving of that level of appreciation, especially when they know they’ve got lots of peers doing the same volunteering they do.”
While the award is significant, Nagel said nominees don’t need to stand above and beyond everyone else.
“One of the nice things about the Volunteer of the Year Award is putting faces of actual people to volunteerism and showing that these are citizens, these are residents of the town who want to help make the town a better place,” she said. “It might help give that impression that everybody and anybody can be a volunteer.”
Last year there were four nominations, with the award going to Diamond Valley Citizens on Patrol (COP) Society president Yvonne Machan.
The Turner Valley woman was nominated by COP member Betty MacKinnon.
Although Machan was honoured by the recognition, she said she’s not one to stand in the spotlight.
“I’m not a ‘get up and speak in front of a lot of people’ kind of person, but I was really pleased that Betty had nominated me and I was really pleased to receive it,” she said. “It’s neat that someone thinks you would do a good job and nominate you.”
Machan implemented the society in 2017 after volunteering with the previous COP program in the 1990s and early 2000s before it folded due to a lack of interest.
She said she felt compelled to get it going again, in response to vehicle thefts in the area, to bring more eyes and ears to the streets of Black Diamond and Turner Valley. With the award hanging in Machan’s living room, she knows she’s not alone when it comes to bettering the community through volunteerism.
“There are a lot of people doing good jobs volunteering in Black Diamond and Turner Valley,” she said.
Nagel agrees, and encourages citizens to put forward the names of people they know who are working hard to better their town.
“The point of volunteerism is everybody is valued,” she said. “Some people like to do a lot and have time to do a lot, but it’s not necessary. This award shows other community members what’s being done. It brings an awareness to volunteerism and how it contributes to the communities as a whole.”
Volunteers in Black Diamond and Turner Valley are celebrated with an event in their honour during National Volunteer Week in April, drawing anywhere from 60 to 80 volunteers, said Nagel.
Those planning to nominate someone for the annual award must fill out a form that includes a brief biography of the nominee, description of their volunteer activities, the impact their involvement has on the community, two references and have the nominee’s consent.
Award recipients receive a certificate of appreciation signed by the mayor and have his or her picture and nameplate added to the plaque in the Black Diamond municipal building.
Nomination forms and more details about the Volunteer of the Year Award are available at the Black Diamond municipal building or at town.blackdiamond.ab.ca
