{"id":3907,"date":"2013-09-18T15:13:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T19:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3907"},"modified":"2013-10-02T13:28:22","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T17:28:22","slug":"award-winners-are-anything-but-garden-variety-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/award-winners-are-anything-but-garden-variety-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Award winners are anything but garden-variety heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the bright green shirts worn by many in the audience, these aren\u2019t your average, garden-variety hometown heroes.<\/p>\n

Nearly 30 Aurora volunteers and community organizations were honoured Monday evening in the annual Community Recognition Awards. Hosted at the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, 28 individuals and groups were singled out for their contributions to Aurora, many representing the Aurora Food Pantry, the Aurora Horticultural Society, and the Aurora Community Arboretum.<\/p>\n

The annual awards ceremony also recognized many who donate their time to the Seniors\u2019 Centre itself, including George Biondic, who was recognized with the Civic Appreciation Award, not just for his work in the Centre, but his athletic career as an ultra-marathoner, still bringing home championships over the age of 60. <\/p>\n

Joining him was \u201cBud\u201d Switzer, whose musical talent has brightened many events around Town and beyond as a \u201cSenior Star.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the duo approached the stage to receive their awards from Councillors Chris Ballard and Paul Pirri, Mr. Switzer had a song on his lips. <\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteerism is an indispensable element to all our municipalities,\u201d said host Mayor Geoffrey Dawe. \u201cAurora\u2019s volunteers share a common vision [to] strengthen our community and enrich the lives of our residents. They share their skills, their life experiences, all for the benefit of others. They are outstanding examples of social responsibility and models of good character.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Andrew\u2019s Pots and Pins, an afterschool program for kids at St. Andrew\u2019s Presbyterian Church teaching cooking and sewing skills, was singled out for Outstanding Achievement for a local Non-Profit.<\/p>\n

Their bright shirts blazing the Aurora Community Arboretum said \u201ctrees!\u201d rather than \u201ccheese!\u201d as their volunteers came up on stage as Community Organization of the Year.
\n

\"Ms.

Ms. Wojtka received her award from Councillor John Gallo. (Auroran photo by David Falconer)<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great honour and it is great to be recognized because you realise that people notice what you\u2019re doing,\u201d said Arboretum chair Irene Clement, who was also honoured for her 15 years of individual volunteerism. \u201cSometimes when you\u2019re volunteering, you might feel like nobody really cares or nobody really knows, but as our trees get bigger, people are more aware of what we\u2019re trying to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sport Aurora\u2019s Ron Weese was honoured with the Bob Harman Memorial Award for people making a positive impact on Aurora\u2019s recreational life. Singled out for his work as a former club president of the Aurora Youth Soccer Club before forming Sport Aurora, he was hailed by Mayor Dawe as having \u201cinspired thousands of our youth\u201d with a love of sport. <\/p>\n

Sharing the love of sport, Mr. Biondic celebrated his award with fellow winners following the ceremony. Preparing for a 24 hour race this Saturday in Cleveland, OH, he anticipates the endeavour being about 65 per cent running and 35 per cent walking. For him, the Civic Appreciation Award was a career highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have received awards in the running community, but here is something the Town recognizes,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope it is an inspiration of all ages to dream big. You don\u2019t know how high you can go. I am shocked at what I have done over the last 10 years. Don\u2019t ever give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the ceremonies, Debby Wojtka prepared to head home, but not before stopping off at her mother\u2019s house to show off the award. Ms. Wotjka was celebrated for her work with youth, including founding Unity House Daycare, and the Junior Youth Empowerment Program, to mentor youth of all backgrounds and religions as they grow into young adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I didn\u2019t want to accept this award [because] I want no community recognition,\u201d explained the mother of five. \u201cBut when my youngest son was in Grade 8 and was graduating, he was up to win many awards and his teacher [asked], \u2018Should we bother nominating him? He\u2019s humble and we don\u2019t think he would accept.\u2019 I remember saying to her: \u2018He may not want to accept them, but I\u2019m his mother and I want to see him accepting them.\u2019
\n\u201cI\u2019m doing this for my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Auroran\u2019s series on individual winners will begin next week with more from Ms. Wojtka.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the bright green shirts worn by many in the audience, these aren\u2019t your average, garden-variety hometown heroes.<\/p>\n

Nearly 30 Aurora volunteers and community organizations were honoured Monday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3896,"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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/2013-09-18-17.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-111","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 07:30:22","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\/3907","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=3907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}