Westlock – St. Paul MP Brian Storseth has nominated five local men for the prime minister's volunteer award for their contribution to the Slave Lake relief effort.
Danny Smyl, Darryl Poirier, Denis Levasseur and Luc Gascon received the recognition on Wednesday at the local MP's office. Eugene Labant has also been nominated for the award but was unavailable on Wednesday for the presentation.
“What you guys did in Athabasca this year was amazing. It really put our community on the map," Storseth told the nominees. “I know being up there, the people of Athabasca and Slave Lake really appreciated it."
The nominees helped organize a donation drop-off spot in the St. Paul Co-op Mall parking lot and then made two trips to deliver the donations to Athabasca along with a group of around 30 people.
The local community's donations were of good quality and were put to good use, confirmed Poirier, after seeing in the news that some communities' donations ended up in the garbage.
“We made the communications to see what was needed," recalled Poirier. “When you're down on the ground floor and saw where they were staying and the good work Athabasca did, it was still quite a scene to see people displaced like that."
The nominees also helped serve a meal in Athabasca, which provided needed relief to volunteers up there, said Storseth.
“It was really quite an operation because we had to feed a lot of people," noted Poirier.
The Millenium Ladies of the All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the St. Paul Abilities Network provided salads for the meal, which served around 1,600 people. The Co-op Mall also offered at cost food bags, around 600 of which went to the relief effort, as well as provided food for the meal. Cash donations from the community went to help with the meal as well as to buy other supplies requested from on the ground organizers.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the creation of the award in January to recognize the “enormous contribution volunteers make to Canada," according Harper's website. “The goal of the Awards is to inspire Canadians from all walks of life to find new ways of making a difference in their communities."
The award consists of 15 regional and two national categories. Three awards will go to each region of Canada, with Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan considered the prairie region. Regional award winners will have the opportunity to identify a non-profit organization to receive $5,000.
Nominations close in September and the winners are expected to be announced in early 2012.
