It’s that time of year again to look back and determine who the Citizen of the Year has been.
The deadline to nominate a local citizen for the Cowichan Lake District Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year award is Saturday, February 12, by 4 p.m.
This same deadline also applies to the Nichole Stock Community Service Award.
Both awards will be handed out during the Chamber of Commerce’s Annual General Meeting, Thursday, February 24, at the Cowichan Lake Curling Lounge.
Things will be done slightly different from past years, Cowichan Lake Chamber of Commerce Visitor Centre coordinator Katherine Worsley said.
Whereas in past years there’s been some ambiguity with regard to the Citizen of the Year Award, this year there’s a more clearly-defined criteria. The recipient must be from the Cowichan Lake area, and have spearheaded, organized, or carried through a project that has benefited the community as a whole during 2010.
“If there are no appropriate candidates, one will not be given,” Worsley said, of the award.
The Nichole Stock Community Service Award will also go toward a member of the Cowichan Lake community. Criteria includes an individual who has exemplified volunteerism, who has served the community unselfishly on an ongoing basis, and who has not received any remuneration for the volunteer activity for which the award is being proposed.
The award is named after local girl Nichole Stock, who spearheaded the Nichole Stock Penny Drive fund-raiser for sick kids, which is now in its 20th year. Stock died in 1999.
Last year’s recipient for the Citizen of the Year award was Laurie Long Johnson. In 2009, she had helped organize fund-raiser events for a cystic fibrosis vest for two local kids, in addition to other fund-raising events the “fund-raising queen” has taken part in.
Pat Jung received last year’s Nichole Stock Community Service Award, for his ongoing volunteer exercise classes at the the Lake Cowichan Seniors’ Centre and Evergreen Place.
Nomination forms for both the Citizen of the Year and the Nichole Stock Community Services Award are now available at the Cowichan Lake Chamber of Commerce Visitor Centre on South Shore Road.