Organized within National Volunteer Week, “The objective is to recognize volunteering in all its forms, in all areas. Volunteering is essential to offer a human commitment that makes a difference in the quality of life of a community.” explains Mary Shewchuk, 2017 Volunteer of the Year and Honorary President of the 2018 Awards.

Again this year, the selection committee found it difficult to choose the winners in each category. The Recognition Awards were sponsored by representatives of organizations which have social commitment in the region at heart; they were Assurances Gosselin, Leahy Orchards, Caisse Desjardins du Haut-Saint-Laurent, Jean-Luc Crête, CPA auditor CGA, and the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent. Here is a list of the winners in each of the categories:

• Involved in a community organization: Mrs. Carole Quenneville
• Involved in a municipality: Mr. Pascal Day
• Involved in an institution: Mrs. Joyce Patenaude
• Volunteering as a family: the Bourdeau family
• Business – corporate volunteering: Construction Mathieu Tremblay
• Succession: Ms Selena Thykootathil
• Coup de Coeur: Mr. Bruno Arnould
• Intergenerational vision: Mrs. Hélène Rayle
• 2018 Volunteer of the Year and recipient of the Léon: the Bourdeau family

The trophy, baptised Léon by the organizing committee in honour of the mascot of Vision Bénévolat, is a work in paper mâché created by a local artist, Geri Bernatchez. It represents a hand, with a bronze look, palm turned upwards. The trophy serves to honour the Volunteer of the Year by adding plaques with the name of each year’s winner. In 2018, it is the “Bourdeau Family” who joins Mary Shewchuk and Betty Riel, who won the honours in 2017 and 2016, respectively.

The organizing committee would like to thank all the sponsors as well as Stéphane Billette, MNA for Huntingdon, for their contribution to the evening. Each nominee received two certificates of recognition; one from Vision Bénévolat and another, signed by Anne Quach, federal representative for Salaberry-Suroît.