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Minister’s Seniors Service Awards nominees recognized at Red Deer ceremony

Aug 16, 2017 | 9:13 AM

Nominees for the Minister’s Seniors Service awards were recognized Tuesday during a ceremony at the Radisson in Red Deer.

Lori Sigurdson, Minister of Seniors and Housing, presented nominees with their certificates and said it’s always a great celebration of volunteerism when looking at the senior community.

“[These volunteers] know the importance of supporting people to make sure that they are connected, welcome, and that their histories are remembered,” said Sigurdson.

There are a total of 81 nominees in Alberta, with three being nominated in both the individual and the organization categories. Both the Minister’s Seniors Service Awards and the Alice Modin award will be handed out later this fall.

The Alice Modin award was created to cherish the memory of its namesake who campaigned to launch a seniors’ day in Strathcona County, which gave way to the province wide seniors week. The award honours a senior who has contributed long-term service in their community.

“It is about volunteers who support seniors, and largely they are seniors themselves. This is my first event with a young man who is supporting seniors,” said Sigurdson of nominee D.J. Paul, 19.

Paul has been volunteering at Michener Extended Care for two years now. Sigurdson said it was fun to have a young man nominated here in Red Deer.

“I said to him ‘how come you do this?’ And he said ‘because it’s fun and I love the residents.’ I think it’s a community that he feels welcomed in and he sees that he has value to them that he can support them,” said Sigurdson.

Paul said at Extended Care he attends every Thursday for an activity that is planned, adding that he enjoys the bocce ball games. He also attends every odd Wednesday for the concerts that are hosted.

“I go there as well and help bring people down so they can listen to the music and residents just love that. They play the best music ever and I like to be a part of that,” said Paul.

He added that “the people at extended care are wonderful” and that it is providing him with a good experience.

“[Being nominated] is an achievement for me because when I started volunteering I didn’t know about this [award],” said Paul.

Dolores Naumenko, another nominee from Red Deer, said being nominated for the award is very humbling and that she doesn’t do the work for the recognition, but rather for the people.

“II have enjoyed it, I’ve done it for the people. I used to work at Valley Park Manor volunteering there, and from there I followed my people to extended care,” said Naumenko.

She added that she mourns the loss of Valley Park Manor because she could easily visit a dozen or more people during her afternoons there.

“Now if you can do four or five [visits] that’s about the extent of it because of the different households,” she said.

The awards ceremony will be held October 2 in Calgary and will see a total of 8 awards given out.