MP awards community members for service

By Sarah Sobanski

Three members of the community have come home with MP Mike Bossio's Canada 150 awards.

The awards were given to Town of Bancroft Councillor Tracy McGibbon, Hastings Highlands Senior of the Year Joey Shulman and Anishinaabe Baptiste council member Ada Tinney.

McGibbon was nominated by Sierra and Wendy Dillabough “for work as a role model through tireless efforts on behalf of her community.” These include “as chair of Bancroft for Kraft Hockeyville, [as] president of Bancroft Skating Club, [and her work with] Relay for Life, [the] North Hastings Arena Board, Bancroft Public Library Board, Bancroft Pregnancy Care Centre, Sunday School direction, Bancroft minor hockey, Switch Yard, Dungannon Mud Bog, Wheels, Water, and Wings, and the North Hastings Health Team,” according to the awards ceremony presentation.

“It truly is an honour to be nominated and awarded a Canada 150 award,” McGibbon told Bancroft This Week after the awards. “To be recognized for my volunteer efforts and contributions over the years in our community is both humbling and appreciated. I love this community, and serving those in it is my absolute pleasure. There are many, many deserving individuals here that are worthy of the Canada 150 award.”

McGibbon offered her congratulations to all the nominees, thanks to the Dillaboughs and added, “We are blessed to live in such a wonderful country where we have the opportunity of getting involved and making a difference in our community, province and our country. I am honoured, blessed and humbled.”

Shulman was nominated by Roy Mitchell “for community theatre work, for volunteer work at the Maynooth Food Bank [and] Maynooth and Hastings Highlands Business Association, for work in helping local artists and for work on pride days to set a welcoming example of inclusivity in the community.”

Shulman wasn't able to attend the awards but he picked up his special Canada 150 award pin — made from the copper roof of the Parliament of Canada — the next day at Bossio's Bancroft office.

“What wonderful news to wake up to,” said Shulman. “I feel honoured and humbled — knowing how many were nominated. I love my community and it obviously loves me back tenfold.”

Tinney was nominated by Algonquin negotiation representative Stephen Hunter with Kijicho Manito Madaouskarini Algonquin Nation “for years of work with the elected Algonquin negotiation representative on land claim issues; for her creation of an inclusive drumming circle at the Faraday Community Centre, for working with children and schools to teach Algonquin culture, and for involvement in the Journey Together Program.”

Bancroft This Week reached out to Tinney but she wasn't available for comment before press time.

Twenty award winners were chosen Sept. 11 at a ceremony in Napanee. There were 68 people nominated. Canada's MPs were each given special pins to give out in whichever way they chose, according to a press release by Bossio's office.

“Bossio decided to set up a non-partisan, independent panel of five judges to decide on the recipients, based on a public call for nominations. Within the overarching criterion of ‘service to country or community,' nominees could have individual criteria including, but not limited to, any one or more of the following: entrepreneurialism, environmental stewardship, heroism, leadership, service [and/or] work toward combatting poverty, ending discrimination, gender equality, Indigenous reconciliation [and/or] rural community sustainability,” stated the release.

“I am so proud of all the nominees, and I would like to thank all of them for their service to our community,” Bossio said in a release following the awards ceremony. “Service comes in many forms, so it is so important that tonight we have recognized people from many different walks of life and across our huge riding — all those people who have volunteered, acted heroically, been environmental stewards, tackled poverty, worked for Indigenous reconciliation, pursued rural sustainability, tackled discrimination in all its forms, and much more. Our community is all the richer for what they have done, and for what so many do in our community every day.”