{"id":38404,"date":"2026-06-25T13:40:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38404"},"modified":"2026-06-25T13:40:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:40:56","slug":"steele-hopes-time-as-citizen-of-the-year-will-inspire-others-to-give-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/steele-hopes-time-as-citizen-of-the-year-will-inspire-others-to-give-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Steele hopes time as Citizen of the Year will inspire others to give back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora\u2019s 2026 Citizen of the Year, Doug Steele, will be at the heart of Canada Day celebrations on July 1 as he helps lead the celebratory parade up Yonge Street on July 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an honour long-enjoyed by Citizens of the Year, but it\u2019s decidedly outside the comfort zone for Steele, who prefers to do his work behind the scenes. But Citizen of the Year duties call, and he hopes that however reluctant he might be to be at the centre of attention, it might inspire others to find ways to give back to their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steele was named Aurora\u2019s Citizen of the Year at the 2026 Community Recognition Awards evening held at Aurora Town Square on May 25. Surprised by the honour, Steele was a man of few words that night, but had more insights to offer once the reality of the award set in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about all the people I\u2019ve worked with,\u201d says the former Welcoming Arms Executive Director, who now serves as Board Chair for the ecumenical organization founded by local churches to help local residents make ends meet through financial and nutritional support. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way I feel. Others have said, \u2018Don\u2019t be so humble,\u2019 but sorry, I don\u2019t know how to do otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead to his role in Canada\u2019s birthday celebrations, he jokes, \u201cI\u2019d rather be hiding under a rock,\u201d but this is not necessarily the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI certainly hope to leverage the notoriety of the award to help Welcoming Arms, which is my main focus now \u2013 from exposure, perhaps from a fundraising standpoint, or drawing new clients who don\u2019t know about us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steele\u2019s community volunteerism is not limited to Welcoming Arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He first became active in the community as a member and eventual Chair of the Light of Christ Catholic Elementary School Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to be engaged in the school my children were in,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Year Two, I was chair of the Welcoming Arms Council and I guess that just lit a fire. To be honest, my mom was a massive volunteer in Toronto where I grew up and she was a great example. She was president of Bloorview Hospital and also the Bloorview Foundation. I took notice of her volunteer activities when I was young and that was probably in the back of my mind all the time while I was getting involved in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He credits his wife and children for first getting him involved in Welcoming Arms as his two youngest sons gained their high school community service hours with Welcome Table, one of the organization\u2019s much-valued weekly meal programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile our youngest was doing that, my wife joined the team as well, and it was a \u2018put your money where your mouth is\u2019 kind of thing. She suggested I might enjoy it, so I volunteered to be a dishwasher, mostly because it was behind the scenes; that\u2019s sort of my modus operandi, to be quiet and do things, but not looking or notoriety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom there, I spent a few years washing dishes and it was great. You could feel what you were doing was good for the community. While I was doing that, I was also on the Board of Governors for Villanova College in King City because my children went there \u2013 so I\u2019m a big protective daddy kind of guy, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steele forged his professional career in the hardware and housewares industry and says he learned a lot from the business people involved at Villanova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know the first thing about charities apart from knowing it\u2019s good to give back to your community,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was during this time that I reconnected with my faith. Welcoming Arms is an ecumenical Christian organization \u2013 that was big for me and continues to be. They\u2019re a joy to be chair of. If they want me, I\u2019m here. I love working with the organization. [Current Executive Director] Sally Freitas keeps me coming back because she\u2019s just so engaged and so good at what she does. That\u2019s the best thing I was ever involved in with Welcoming Arms \u2013 being on the committee that hired her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he can help shine a light on volunteerism during his reluctant time as Citizen of the Year, that wouldn\u2019t hurt, either. For those looking to get more involved in their community, he has one word of advice: \u201cDon\u2019t be nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you feel like it might be a good thing, go for it and give it a good chance. That\u2019s what I did with the dishwashing and with all my volunteer efforts. I said, \u2018Well, let me give it a try.\u2019 Once you get involved, you\u2019ll find quickly either you don\u2019t like it or it\u2019s been fantastic and you want to keep going. I\u2019ve been very fortunate, I\u2019ve been engaged in a number of different things and they\u2019ve all been really rewarding for myself \u2013 and thankfully for others, too, because that\u2019s really what I do it for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Aurora\u2019s 2026 Citizen of the Year, Doug Steele, will be at the heart of Canada Day celebrations on July 1 as he helps lead the celebratory parade up Yonge Street on July 1. It\u2019s an honour long-enjoyed by Citizens of the Year, but it\u2019s decidedly outside the comfort zone for Steele, who prefers to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38224,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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-38404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Zq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-30 03:31:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-05-28-04.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38404","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=38404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38405,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38404\/revisions\/38405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}