It’s always nice to receive an award.
The Cochrane Community Awards (CCA) is a great way for those in the area to have their accomplishments recognized, and this past weekend, several in the community were honoured for just that.
Maureen Wills was awarded the Order of Cochrane; Seniors for Kids was named Volunteer Group of the Year; and Barry and Dawn Metcalfe were dual Citizens of the Year.
Then there was the Pathfinder of the Year award, which this year, went to Judy Stewart.
Sustainability Partners Uniting Resources (SPUR) sponsors the Pathfinder award, and since it was first presented during the CCA, those on the outside looking in may question if this honour is nothing more than a pat on the back to either a SPUR member or someone who strongly advocates for the group.
The first recipient of the award (in 2012) was SPUR co-chair Jeff Couillard. Tim Giese, also a SPUR chairperson and president of the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC), received the honour in 2013.
Stewart, this year’s Pathfinder of the Year, is also a CEAC sub-committee chairperson, and is an ambassador for the Cochrane Sustainability Plan, a plan that SPUR provides guidance for and implements widespread action, reporting and movement toward.
The work SPUR does is a worthwhile endeavour, but where are all the other Cochrane citizens who are blazing a worthy path in our community and have not been recognized, seemingly because they are not in any way associated with SPUR?
So many people in Cochrane do so many great things, and one may question the existence of an award that based on its recipients seems to be bestowed on one small group in an effort to say, “Hey, look at the great work we do.”
Perhaps it would make more sense if award sponsors were not permitted to give hardware to one of their own.
It would certainly bring more validity to the Pathfinder award if SPUR was to recognize a Cochrane citizen or business that was deserving of such an honour.
Couillard, Giese and Stewart all do wonderful work for Cochrane and deserve to be commended for their efforts. It takes a certain type of person to give their time and labours for the betterment of their community.
But patting each other on the back for that hard work diminishes what they have each accomplished in the eyes of many, and that’s a shame.
If SPUR wants to recognize their own for the work they have done, maybe it’s time they hold their own awards ceremony.
