By Mary Giuliano

This past Friday, November 27, the City of Fernie held its first volunteer appreciation event.

The luncheon was sponsored by Columbia Power and hosted by the city. As a long-time resident of Fernie I know many of the people who undertake an unbelievable amount of work that is unpaid but yet very valuable to many groups and organizations. These people don’t do it for a “free lunch” as one person stated. They do it just because it needs to be done and to help others. Many times these people never expect thanks and certainly they don’t do it to receive accolades; however, I am a firm believer that there is no reason why amazing people shouldn’t be thanked publically at some point.

So, welcome to our first volunteer appreciation lunch. And this is what I said to those who attended, nearly 200 of them.

On behalf of the City of Fernie I want to extend sincere thanks to every volunteer that we have in our community.

You, our volunteers, are critical to the success of any organization or group.

Look around this community at what we enjoy and it is evident that it is due to the many people that took the initiative of tasks, responsibility and projects that made many of those amenities happen.

I’m not sure that there are words adequate to describe a volunteer.

Volunteers are the heart of any community and so on behalf of city council and the City of Fernie, thank you for all you do.

Thank you to Audrey Repin from Columbia Power who is present today. Thank you to Jim Hendricks and the City of Fernie. Thank you to Heather Smith, (assistant to Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett), for her kind words on behalf the Kootenay East MLA.

To our volunteer of the year, Kevin McIsaac (pictured above), for his great speech on behalf of volunteers; to Pastor Dennis Williamson for saying grace, thank you to Barbara Bassett and the High School Band, Allison Pace and Academy kids, and Rosanna and Holy Family choir members for the gift of music today.

Thank you to Alice Booth and the ladies of the senior’s centre for preparing the food, and thank you to Emma Dressler and the Library staff for assisting with this event.

And a special thank you to Councillor Dan McSkimming for being our emcee.

But most of all thanks go to all of our wonderful volunteers; you are what makes this place we call home so special.

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