{"id":26207,"date":"2020-03-19T19:37:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T23:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26207"},"modified":"2020-03-19T19:37:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T23:37:42","slug":"community-recognition-awards-shine-light-on-selfless-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/community-recognition-awards-shine-light-on-selfless-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Recognition Awards shine light on selfless giving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lynne Camilleri was speechless when she learned she was\nset to receive Aurora\u2019s Community Safety Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a school crossing guard, she has passionately\ndedicated her life to ensuring students and their families get to and from\nschool safely, forging relationships with those she protects, never pausing for\na moment to look for recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, she received just such recognition last year when\nshe was nominated for the prize as part of the Town\u2019s Community Recognition\nAwards \u2013 and now you can step up to shine a light on the unsung heroes all\naround you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nominations are now open for the 2020 Community\nRecognition Awards, which recognize deserving residents, businesses and organizations\nfor their efforts in making Aurora a better place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople volunteer for a variety of reasons, but rarely is\nthere recognition of what they\u2019re volunteering for,\u201d says Shelley Ware, Special\nEvents Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cThis community simply can\u2019t be as\nfantastic as it is without the volunteers that we have and the impact they have\ndirectly on us. For those that benefit from seeing the magic that volunteers\ncreate, we really want to encourage them to take the time to fill out a nomination\nform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nominations are now being accepted online through April\n3, and include: the Volunteer Service Award; the Youth Volunteer Award; the\nGreen Award, recognizing those who are making a difference on our environment;\nArts & Culture; Community Leadership; the Good Neighbour Award; the Good\nBusiness Award; Community Safety; Inclusivity; and Citizen of the Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New this year is the \u201cSenior Volunteer Award\u201d, presented\nto a citizen above the age of 55 who, \u201cthrough their volunteer efforts, has\nmade a significant contribution to the community and has demonstrated their\ncommitment to being a positive leader today and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCurrently, we have a Youth award and this year a\ncommunity member brought forward the idea of a Senior Award, which has been enthusiastically\nembraced,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cSeniors in Aurora are so active and come from so\nmany talented backgrounds that they are really an important group within the\ncommunity and I am hoping for lots of nominations in that specific category.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, there are some awards, in Ms. Ware\u2019s view, that\ncontinue to fly under the radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Good Neighbour Award is just one such example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora is made up with such exceptional residents and\neach of those residents is somebody\u2019s neighbour,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cA neighbour\ndoesn\u2019t mean the geographic address beside you; a neighbour is someone who\nembodies what it means to be a good neighbour within a vibrant neighbourhood. A\nneighbourhood could be a retirement home, it could be a residential\nneighbourhood, an apartment building \u2013 it is not the bricks and mortar stuff\nthat matters, but the simple acts of kindness and compassion that a Good\nNeighbour demonstrates to keep our neighbourhoods connected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inclusivity Award, recognizing those who have\ncontributed to making Aurora a more accessible or inclusive place to live, work\nand play for \u201call people regardless of race, ancestry, national and ethnic\norigin, creed, religion, age, gender identity, gender expression, marital\nstatus, family status or ability\u201d is also sometimes overlooked by potential\nnominators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur community becomes more and more inclusive year after\nyear and it happens because there are passionate people in the community who\nbring forward ideas for improvement, to make the area as inclusive as\npossible,\u201d says Ms. Ware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the award which so moved Ms. Camilleri last\nyear, can also fall behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis goes to an individual for the development,\npromotion, or support of initiatives that improve our community safety,\u201d says\nMs. Ware. \u201cThis includes those who go above and beyond in our neighbourhoods to\nimprove the overall safety of it. We know good deeds are being done out there\nto ensure our community remains safe, but this is one category where we\nstruggle to get nominations and I think it is just those who have seen the\nsafety improvements maybe aren\u2019t realizing that there is this award that they\ncould nominate a person for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLynne, she was absolutely speechless to have been\nrecognized in this fashion. She does it from deep down in the bottom of her\nheart. The fact that she touched and made so many families feel safer sending\ntheir kids to school, it was such a humbling experience for her that she was\nliterally moved to tears. Being able to watch that from the outside in was just\namazing, such a humbling experience to see somebody be recognized when truly\nthey are not doing it for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think volunteers and advocates are so busy doing what\nthey do well that the busiest volunteer often doesn\u2019t have time or realize\nthese programs exist out there because the fundamental thing we hear over and\nover again is people don\u2019t volunteer to be recognized, they volunteer because\nthey choose to make a difference. I think we really need to press our efforts\ntowards those who see who the difference-makers are in the community and\nencourage them to take an active role in this process. I am not sure I have met\na resident or someone in the community at some point that has not volunteered\nor given back and been proud to do so. That truly is what makes Aurora special\nand stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the 2020 Community Recognition Awards, including nomination forms, visit aurora.ca\/cra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynne Camilleri was speechless when she learned she was set to receive Aurora\u2019s Community Safety Award. As a school crossing guard, she has passionately dedicated her life to ensuring students and their families get to and from school safely, forging relationships with those she protects, never pausing for a moment to look for recognition. But, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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-26207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6OH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 11:44:40","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\/26207","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=26207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}