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Volunteers recognized by city

Bruce Thurston and Mya Desmaris have been announced as the inaugural recipients of the City of Yorkton’s Citizen Recognition Awards.
Yorkton

Bruce Thurston and Mya Desmaris have been announced as the inaugural recipients of the City of Yorkton’s Citizen Recognition Awards.

The announcement was made at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Monday with Thurston being chosen in the adult category and Desmaris in the youth category.

“In October of 2017, Council approved the “Citizen Recognition Awards” Policy. The policy is in place to recognize two recipients (Adult and Youth) who have given selfless support, and made contributions for the betterment of the City of Yorkton. A Council committee comprised of three Council members and two community members was appointed in January of 2018 to adjudicate submissions for the 2018 year, and recommend the award recipients to Council,” explained Jessica Matsalla (City Clerk) with the City at Monday’s meeting.

As of the submission deadline, there were 11 adult category submissions, and four youth category submissions received. Packages were prepared for the Committee for their November 19, 2018 meeting.

“All the submissions were carefully considered by the Committee, and although a difficult decision, the Committee narrowed down two deserving individuals, and recommend to Council that Bruce Thurston (Adult) and Mya Desmaris (Youth) be approved as the Citizen Recognition Award Winners for 2018,” said Matsalla.

As background Matsalla reported “Bruce Thurston is a familiar name for many, with his extensive involvement in the City. Events that have seen his efforts are the Charity Road Race, Rhythm and Ribs Festival, Charity Golf Classics, the Farming for Health Project, Snowarama, the annual Pumpkin Walk, as well as involvement with the Soup Haven and YBID to name a few.

“Mya Desmaris is an honour roll student at the Yorkton Regional High School who has many notable accomplishments. The annual Friday Night Lights football game was orchestrated by her efforts amidst performing a Skills Canada Competition and achieving bronze in Public Speaking and Robotics, working as a lifeguard, and volunteering as a Mentor for Big Brothers and Big Sisters.”

The presentation of the awards was originally set to occur at the first meeting held in January 2019, with award recipients in attendance prior for a reception and appreciation, however, due to schedule conflicts, we will defer to present the awards at a future meeting of Council.