More than 20 worthy recipients were on hand at the EA Rawlinson Centre on Saturday to accept the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of their service to the community.
Representatives from the RCMP, Military, healthcare, volunteers and other were recognized in the ceremony by Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback.
Hoback began looking for candidates more than a year ago and was pleased to see the project completed. He was impressed by their achievements.
“These are people who have been the backbone of our communities,” Hoback said. “They’ve been volunteers. They’ve all been nominated by peers in the community. They’ve all achieved success in their careers or achieved success in their volunteer work. It’s just a good chance to say thank you and to acknowledge their hard work…. It’s a pretty amazing list of people.”
Hoback started the project with a request for nominations in 2024.
“We actually went back into the riding and asked constituents to put forward names for the King’s Coronation Medal. The names are all submitted and then quickly went through an evaluation process just to make sure they were legitimate,” he said.
Hoback said the project was delayed by other matters, but he was happy to see it completed.
“(It’s) something we were hoping to do last spring, but with a combination of elections and other events that are happening at the time, we just couldn’t put it together in time to do it in the spring,” he said. “We’re doing it now here in August and finally giving the acknowledgment and recognition these people deserve.”
There have been several other individuals in the region honoured with medals but this was the largest one for the area.
“This is really big and it’s not just us doing it,” Hoback explained. “The Premier has done some presentations; some MLAs have done some presentations.”
Hoback said the ceremony was a nice way to acknowledge the work of the people who were recognized.
“It’s a nice way to say thank you,” he said.
“They’ve done things in the past and they’re still active in the future. They make our community stronger and we just appreciate it, so it’s a really good opportunity to say thank you.”
Dr. Lalita Malhotra, a prominent and frequently recognized for her service to Prince Albert and area was among the honourees. She credited her friends, family, and colleagues for the recognition.
“I think I’m really indebted to the people of Prince Albert and also the surrounding areas who have always helped me because anything you achieve in your life is not done alone,” Malhotra said. “You need everybody’s help only then you can achieve something like this.”
She also acknowledged the work of the other people who were recognized on Saturday.
Marj Bodnarchuk, a former Citizen of the Year like Malhotra, was also among the honourees. Bodnarchuk said she never did what she did to get awards. She just wanted to help out in any way she could.
“I really don’t need honours. I just really enjoy all the fun of engaging with the community in so many ways,” she explained. “For people who may find life a little dull or a little boring try to step out and step forward, put yourself in there as a volunteer.
“This crowd today is a shining example, not only of Saskatchewan, but it’s what the world could do and if everybody just volunteered to do good things, it would be a wonderful world,” she added
People from Melfort, Nipawin, Weldon and other communities were among those recognized. The afternoon was emceed by Mitch Holash and the honourees were piped in by Piper Dave Monette.
The medal recipients were Keith Amyotte, Ramsey Bellisle, Shelley Belisle, Doug Chisholm, Chad Christopherson, Martin Donly, Chelsey Erickson, Alan Fraser, Joe Hargrave, Opal Harris, Lew Harrison, Delbert Kirsch, Robin Knudsen, Dennis Koch, Margaret Koch, Gloria Mahussier, Rhonda Meakin, Allison Nagy, Brandon Parr, Terry Rogers, Henry Siwak, Charlene Sproat, Wesley Stubbs and John Wade.
Mahussier’s family accepted on her behalf. Fred Bradshaw, Henri Dagenais, Trevor Dutchak and Jamie Petrie were not in attendance to accept their awards.
The Government of Canada created the medal to mark the coronation of King Charles on May 6, 2023. It is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to their communities, province and Canada.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
