Without the work and dedication of volunteers, communities would cease to function or maybe even exist.
That was a recurring message at the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast yesterday(Saturday) at the
Travelodge.
About 200 people enjoyed the food and the awards ceremony organized by Volunteer Information Quinte.
The following awards were presented. The Maurice Rollins Community Leadership Award for Youth,
the Investors Group Volunteer Business Person, the Ruth Burrows Volunteer of the Year.
There were two winners for the youth award. In second place, and receiving $1,000. from Maurice Rollins, was Emmie
Murphy. She volunteers at school and has organized and done significant fundraising for the Heart of Hastings Hospice,
serving the region in and around Centre Hastings.
Maurice Rollins presents a youth award to Emmie Murphy.(Photo/John Spitters/Quinte News).
In first place and the recipient of $1,500. was Essegent Lemma. She was nominated by the Pentecostals of Quinte and she
has volunteered tirelessly with the King’s Kids Children’s department for 7 years, as well as working as a Sunday School
teacher and Bible camp volunteer. Outside of the church, she volunteers for the Canadian Cancer Society and the Community
Development Council.
Youth winner Essengent Lemma is flanked on the left by Prince Edward County Mayor Robert Quaiff and on the right by Belleville councillor Egerton Boyce.(Photo/John Spitters/Quinte News).
The Volunteer Business Person Award was presented to Nancy Troke, a longtime mortgage broker now leading her own business,
Mortgage Architects. She has volunteered for the Children’s Learning Foundation, Festival of Trees, Children’s Safety
Village, and has lately been heavily involved with Habitat for Humanity Prince Edward Hastings.
Investors Group Securities representative Darrell Smith presents Nancy Troke with the Volunteer Business Person Award.(Photo/John Spitters/Quinte News).
The Ruth Burrows Volunteer Award of the Year award was won by Bob Wludyka. Ruth Burrows started the first local volunteer agency 50
years ago, an agency that has evolved but continuously grown, morphing into what is now Volunteer Information Quinte.
Mr. Wludyka has been a life-time volunteer and was nominated by Community Care for South Hastings. He has delivered Meals on
Wheels, driven people to medical appointments, helped with home repairs and groceries. Each year, Mr. Wludyka, who is
a master woodworker, builds a gorgeous doll house to be raffled off by a charity or non-profit agency.
When people thank him for his help, he is known to simply respond, “I’m just being a good neighbour.”
On the left is the Volunteer of the Year Bob Wludyka.(Photo/John Spitters/Quinte News).
About 200 people enjoyed the food and the awards ceremony organized by Volunteer Information Quinte.
The breakfast is held every year during National Volunteer Week.
Investors Group Securities is a major sponsor of the event and company representative Darrel Smith suggested
it would be enlightening to know just how much monetary value the work of volunteers represented in all of
Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, including Belleville and Quinte West. Smith referred to a recent message
delivered by the Community Development Council of Quinte’s Executive Director, Ruth Ingersoll, who estimated
the dollar value of volunteers to her agency alone at around $200,000.
