{"id":31176,"date":"2022-04-21T18:53:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T22:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31176"},"modified":"2022-04-21T18:53:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T22:53:16","slug":"volunteer-brian-north-honoured-with-ontario-medal-for-good-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/volunteer-brian-north-honoured-with-ontario-medal-for-good-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer Brian North honoured with Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After donning a suit and tie for a virtual meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Aurora\u2019s Brian North was quickly off to spend some time on a cause very close to his heart: the Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the local hospital\u2019s biggest annual fundraisers, it\u2019s a community event he has been heavily involved in for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time he was back in his volunteer duds this week, however, he had something else under his sleeve: the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. North, a 2019 Honouree, formally received his medal from Lieutenant-Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Queen\u2019s representative in Ontario, last week alongside 21 other community builders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was honoured not just for his tireless work on behalf of the Run for Southlake but also for organizations as varied as the Optimist Club of Aurora to the Aurora United Church\u2019s rebuilding committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrian North is what Optimists inspire to be,\u201d read his citation. \u201cHe injects his positivity into various community initiatives, including Regional fundraisers and environmental clean-ups. He has shared his time with numerous organizations including Easter Seals, Habitat for Humanity, Scouts Canada, York Small Business Enterprise Centre and the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Brian North, the glass isn\u2019t half-full, it\u2019s overflowing: a true Optimist and member of the Aurora Optimist Club, Mr. North injects positivity into every task he tackles. Each year, he lobbies over 1,000 people to participate in the planning and execution of the Run for Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation and takes a lead role in the Environmental Cleanup at Aurora\u2019s Magna Hoedown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever Mr. North puts his mind to, people approach and ask, \u2018What can I do to help?\u2019 Today, he is helping lead the construction of Aurora United Church which burned down a few years ago. With Mr. North\u2019s upbeat sense of purpose, it is sure to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mr. North, who has previously been named Aurora\u2019s Citizen of the Year, this latest honour was particularly timely as it came just two days before the eighth anniversary of the fire which devastated the beloved local place of worship and little more than a week out from the Run for Southlake on April 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so humbled,\u201d said Mr. North the day after receiving the medal. \u201cI am shocked by [some of the comments] I have received. The Run for Southlake obviously means a lot to me. I have been involved in it for 13 years now \u2013 the hospital means a lot to me and it means a lot to all of us. It touches us all. For it to come together at this time is neat. [At the Run] I see a lot of people I wouldn\u2019t normally see and now that the award is out in the open I am sure people will stop and talk to me who don\u2019t normally stop and talk. I know it sounds clich\u00e9 [to be humbled by something like this] but it is so true. How I met most of my friends and the people I know has been through volunteering; you don\u2019t do it to get awards, but when you do get them it almost becomes embarrassing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people say once you get an award you slow down, but I don\u2019t slow down. I still have a job to get done. The award means the world to me, especially coming from the Lieutenant-Governor. Something like this keeps you moving and I am going to see these projects through to the end and I will stay with the Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake as long as they want me to. They are probably coming to a time when they need a change and get rid of people like me because it has been too long, but as long as they need me or I can be of use to them, I will probably stick around!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on this weekend\u2019s 2022 Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake, visit southlake.ca\/foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

After donning a suit and tie for a virtual meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Aurora\u2019s Brian North was quickly off to spend some time on a cause very close to his heart: the Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake. One of the local hospital\u2019s biggest annual fundraisers, it\u2019s a community event he has been heavily involved in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31176","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\/2022\/04\/2022-04-21-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-86Q","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 06:59:59","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\/31176","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=31176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}