Cold Lake Imperial Oil receives education award

Imperial Oil's Cold Lake Operations were recognized provincially with the 2016 Friends of Education award.

The group was nominated earlier this year by the Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) for the work they do to help out local schools.

"Our district chose to nominate Imperial because we have been working with Imperial for several years on a variety of educational innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as a dual credit course in oil and exploration," said Amanda Wildman, CTS and dual credit coordinator for LCSD.

Upon receiving the award, Imperial Oil representatives expressed that they feel helping out in the community makes the area stronger.

"We believe community investments and volunteering are essential to building strong and healthy communities. Our various partnerships with Lakeland Catholic School District have resulted in positive outcomes, such as allowing students to begin exploring career pathways while still in high school, leading to more informed decision making," said Darlene Gates, Imperial Cold Lake and conventional asset manager.

Imperial Oil received the award during the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) Fall General Meeting Award Banquet in November. The Friends of Education Award annually recognizes an organization in member communities who have made a significant contribution to education in Alberta.

"They've been generous to us with financial support, in-kind donations, and employee volunteer work," explained Wildman. "They've really gone above and beyond to demonstrate their commitment to our school district and to our programming. We felt that they were the ones who deserve to receive that award so we were extremely happy when we found out that they were selected."

Imperial received a trophy and representatives were brought on stage at the convention to accept the award.

Gates added that Imperial Oil is "Honoured to receive this award."