Maxine Chacun was announced as Virden Citizen of the Year at the Town of Virden’s Annual Holiday Banquet.
Virden Councillor Tara Cowan condensed a two-page nomination explaining some of Chacun’s civic and volunteer work.
When we think of volunteerism and commitment we automatically think of Maxine. Maxine sat on Virden Town Council from 1995 to 2014 both as councillor and deputy mayor and worked alongside numerous mayors and councils throughout this time. Presently Maxine volunteers on the Local Health Improvement and Prairie Mountain Health, she volunteered on the local advisory for the previous RHA, served on the Association of Manitoba Municipalities as Western Urban Director for five years, she is the chairperson for the Virden Area Doctor Recruitment and Retention Committee.
She served on the Seniors Association for Independent Living for 16 years. While with that organization she was on the committee that worked with the RHA to obtain funding for an extra resource committee for Virden’s two seniors’ complexes.
Chacun, in her calm, business-like way congratulated the other nominees.
She responded to her award saying, “When I got the invitation, I said, ‘somebody must have been bored when they nominated me, but I’d love to come back to the Town of Virden’s Christmas supper because I’ve always enjoyed all the people that I was able to work with on council.’”
She made reference to the mayors she worked with and joked, “Every term there was a different mayor, until after I left and then the mayor had two terms.”
Chacun finished by saying, “If it wasn’t for volunteers in this community, or any other community, we wouldn’t have a community. So everyone that has volunteered...especially Bill and Garry, worked many hours to make this a better community.”
One of two runners-up, Bill McQuaker was nominated by Mike and Jessica Reid; Cowan read a brief of the nomination.
He’s the hardest working and most involved person I’ve ever come across. A few of Bill’s past volunteer positions in the area include Conservation District, the Rifle and Gun Club, Virden Valley School, Virden Animal Hospital, Cubs and Scouts, the Agricultural society, credit union and he plays a major part in managing the Virden rodeo grounds.
Garry Morris was a nominee for a second year.
Garry spent 43 years working for Manitoba Hydro, he spent time doing safety presentations for our schools, served 27 years on the board of the Virden Oil Kings, nine years as a volunteer firefighter, 45 years as Santa for Virden and area and many other various community engagements.
These two runners up also received certificates of recognition at the Town’s Christmas banquet.
