Local volunteer earns international honour
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Darlene Gillies named 2018 UCT Volunteer of the Year
By Eoin Devereux
Neepawa Banner & Press
To simply say that Darlene Gillies has a long history of volunteerism still feels like a dramatic understatement. For years, her name has been a familiar one penned upon the bottom of the sign-up sheets for a wide array of community functions. It’s because of that consistent commitment to helping others that she has been recently honoured by the Order of United Commercial Travellers (UCT).
On Tuesday, July 3, Gillies was presented with the UCT’s Volunteer of the Year Award at the annual International Convention, held in Savannah, Georgia. The award is the highest honour given to a member who has demonstrated outstanding service to both the UCT and their community. For Gillies, who has been a member for 28 years, it was also a very unexpected honour.
“A little bit of a shock. I knew my name had been submitted, but it had been submitted before, so I never expected to be singled out in this manner. There are so many qualified people with the UCT and people who probably deserve the honour more than I did,” said Gillies. “When the award was announced, [the presenters] talked about a few of the projects like Join Hands Day and Safety Day. Lots of [regional UCT] councils do similar events, but when they came to the coordinating Safety Day for the area students or something to that effect, I kind of looked [around the table] and the other lady that knew, from Brandon; She had tears in her eyes and it sunk in ‘Is that me?’. The ones up on the stage looked at me and they could just see my face change, as the realization set in.”
Gillies has been a devoted member of the UCT since 1990, assisting in the chartering of the Neepawa Council 924 just one year later. Over the course of the near three decades since that time, she has proven to be a true asset to her community through 1,000 plus worth of personal volunteering she gives each year. Just some of that support includes listening and consoling bereaved families in their homes, driving cancer patients to appointments such as chemo and radiation treatments and assisting at the local flu clinic. Gillies noted that there is a simple reason why she supports the community in this manner.
“It’s just the thing you do. You volunteer because you want to volunteer. It’s the right thing to do,” Gillies stated. “What I’m pleased to see is others stepping up to volunteer as well. Anyone that’s employed [at Neepawa Tire Ltd] is a UCT member and, of course, we have some younger boys and they’ve been helping wherever they can. Helping with Farm Safety Day or with the UCT’s parade float, for example.
Gillies was quick to pass credit on to the community of Neepawa, saying that there are so many people who commit their time and energy to local causes, that doesn’t get the recognition. She also thanked her family, her fellow UCT members and her husband Warren for their support over the years, noting that making the community a better place is not a one-person job.
