{"id":19506,"date":"2018-01-03T17:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T22:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19506"},"modified":"2018-01-03T17:00:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T22:00:58","slug":"canada-150-medals-honour-communitys-unsung-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/canada-150-medals-honour-communitys-unsung-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada 150 medals honour community\u2019s unsung heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/p>\n

They are fuelled by a passion for community, but they often put this passion in action quietly and with little fanfare. That all changed this fall, however, when Newmarket-Aurora MP Kyle Peterson honoured 150 residents of the riding with a special medal to mark a very special occasion.
\nThe best and brightest volunteers from Newmarket-Aurora filled Northridge Community Church as one member of the community for each of Canada\u2019s 150 years was recognized for their \u201cunsung\u201d heroism.
\nWhether they have worked behind the scenes as advocates for food security, seniors, or LGBTQ rights, each of the 150 individuals were, after a call for nominations was put out this past summer, nominated by members of the community at large for their \u201coutstanding volunteer service and dedication to the community.\u201d
\n\u201cWe wanted people who contribute to the community on a regular basis and just help make Newmarket-Aurora a better place to live through their own volunteer efforts,\u201d says Mr. Peterson looking back on the ceremony. \u201cWhat struck me was the number of people I hadn\u2019t heard of, the unsung heroes who were nominated. It was great to learn about so many organizations and great people in the community that a lot of people don\u2019t even know are around and all the great work people are doing.\u201d
\nWhat struck Mr. Peterson about each of the recipients, he says, was a common refrain when he presented them with the medals themselves. More often than not they said, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I was nominated\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t even know why [my name] was put forward.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was just the humility of people who were nominated; it just becomes such a routine and part of their daily life \u2013 their volunteer efforts, whether it was the hospital or a non-profit, or with sports teams or youth organizations, they didn\u2019t see themselves as anything special. It was just such a normal part of their daily lives they didn\u2019t realise someone else would see them as playing such an important role in our community,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be honest, that overwhelmed me at some points. These are the people who make our community such a great place to live.\u201d
\nThese people were, in alphabetical order:<\/p>\n

Jim Abram
\nSusan Abram
\nElaine Adam
\nNaqi Ashan
\nJim Alexander
\nAlex Ansell
\nKen Antaya
\nTyler Barker
\nDorian Baxter
\nJacque Bayley
\nMelanie Bell
\nMartha Berry
\nJean-Paul Bichay
\nElizabeth Blight
\nTom Boswell
\nKirk Bowden
\nPhyllis Brady
\nLaurie Braekboer
\nMarjorie Brewster
\nJudy Brunton
\nRod Bruton
\nNancy Cameron
\nLynda Carusi
\nErin Cerenzia
\nBill Chadwick
\nTracee Chambers
\nDon Chretien
\nRob Clark
\nMichelle Clayton Wood
\nJulie Cochrane
\nLinda Condy
\nTom Connor
\nCrystal Cook
\nJudy Craig
\nJennifer Cuypers
\nRosemarie D\u2019Aguiar
\nClaire D\u2019Aurore
\nKarey Dawe
\nJohn Dowson
\nAngel Dupee
\nChris Dupee
\nPaul Dutton
\nLily Edmunds
\nChris Emanuel
\nCarrie Emerson
\nLeslie Everson
\nJacqueline FainGold
\nRobert Fairs
\nBonnie Fleishaker
\nRoy George
\nRosalyn Gonsalves
\nKerry Greico
\nMatt Haggerty
\nDavid Hanna
\nDave Hanson
\nJohn Hardy
\nRoy Harrison
\nAthol Hart
\nBeth Hart
\nPatricia Hawke
\nElisabeth Hempen
\nSteve Hinder
\nJames Hoyes
\nLori Hoyes
\nMaureen Huismans
\nRob Hums
\nJacqueline Hunt
\nWasim Jarrah
\nPaul Jones
\nJill Kellie
\nErika Kerwin
\nChan Khamphoomee
\nGreg Knuth
\nDanielle Koren
\nTeresa Kruze
\nAlda Lima
\nReggie Lima
\nJohn Loughry
\nRich Lunney
\nJanis Luttrell
\nRichard MacLeod
\nGlenn Marais
\nDonelda Martin
\nGary Marston
\nGraeme Mason
\nDon McCallum
\nEric McCartney
\nSandra McCleary
\nDon McKnight
\nSteve McNaught
\nGlen McRobbie
\nJuliane McTavish-Goyette
\nPeter Miller
\nKevin Mills
\nAdam Mobbs
\nMelanie Moffat
\nTrudy Montgomery
\nJacob Montgomery
\nJim Nesbitt
\nJames Nuttall
\nBrian Patterson
\nTom Pearson
\nTara Peel
\nJudy Perry
\nRohan Persaud
\nGlenn Playter
\nJackie Playter
\nJuliana Playter
\nWes Playter
\nSusan Popper
\nRick Preston
\nKeith Profit
\nJohn Rank
\nTammy Raper
\nJoyce Remy
\nKaren Richards
\nDavid Robinson
\nRichard Roos
\nAl Rover
\nMarilyn Savage
\nDoug Scott
\nAlejandro Segura
\nLea Seymour
\nMelissa Shafa
\nTerry Sherin
\nGina Shillolo
\nRanji Singh
\nMarcia Sinclair
\nDean Smalley
\nMichael Smith
\nMarilyn Sorochan
\nElizabeth Sparling
\nJoe Sponga
\nMike Springford
\nSean Stephens
\nBarry Stock
\nFred Stoneman
\nPeter Sturrup
\nMurray Taylor
\nTom Taylor
\nKarin Theron
\nLena Thorogood
\nRoxanne Van Bynen
\nChole Vargas
\nBessie Vlasis
\nGail Waller
\nDavid Wattling
\nDave Williams
\nFrank Young
\nClaudius Zujew<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the people of Newmarket-Aurora realise how fortunate we are to live in a community where there are so many people who make giving back part of their daily routine and making giving back part of their lives,\u201d says Mr. Peterson. \u201cI have two young children who are very active in sports and they have great coaches and great organizations that are all volunteers and we\u2019re very blessed and fortunate.
\n\u201cWe live in the greatest community in Canada, or one of the greatest communities in Canada, and a big part of that is the quality of the volunteers and the quantity of volunteers we have.\u201d
\nLooking back over the Canada 150 commemorations in 2017, Mr. Peterson says the observances, from the Canada Day bash to Aurora\u2019s inaugural Pow-Wow served to show \u201chow far Canada, as a country, has come in 150 years and how much further we still have to go and what we can do.\u201d
\n\u201cEvery Canadian should be proud to be Canadian and proud to be part of a country like Canada and accept the fact we have accomplished a lot but we are just beginning,\u201d says Mr. Peterson. \u201cThere is much more to do and many more ways to ensure Canada remains a progressive nation, a beacon to many in the world on how to get certain things right. I just think it was a great year for Canada to rally around the maple leaf and keep working hard to make the country better.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They are fuelled by a passion for community, but they often put this passion in action quietly and with little fanfare. That all changed this fall, however, when Newmarket-Aurora MP Kyle Peterson honoured 150 residents of the riding with a special medal to mark a very special occasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018-01-04-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-54C","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 13:26:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}