Osoyoos resident and longtime volunteer in the area, Sue Whittaker, received the outstanding individual volunteer award at the annual Volunteer Awards ceremony at the Sonora Centre on Saturday. Dale Boyd/Osoyoos Times

By Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

Sue Whittaker was surprised to win the outstanding individual volunteer award at the Annual Volunteer Awards on Saturday.

Surprised not only to hear her name called out of 17 nominees, but to hear the resume of her community service in Osoyoos for nearly four decades.

“Very happy that people can remember things I’ve forgotten doing, it’s been over 37 years,” Whittaker said.

She laughed at one of her credits, forgetting she had stepped in as an interim Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen director for for Area A for a term and a half.

“It was quite a long time ago, I had to step in for somebody who had to step out due to a conflict. So I did about a term and a half, completely unprepared,” Whittaker laughed. “I don’t think it was mentioned but I was a school teacher, so I could read, so that helped.”

A member of the Osoyoos Arts Council, Whittaker has served as president a number of times over the years, a founding member of the Osoyoos Quilt Guild and the O’s Own Writers. Whittaker also helped create the Children’s Showcase and Class Acts, now known as the Osoyoos Concert Series.

“Sue, a talented artist, continues to share her gift by offering lessons for children and adults, only charging the cost of materials as she done for many years,” said Coun. Myers Bennett who presented Whittaker with the award during the event at the Sonora Community Centre.

Whittaker and her husband came to Osoyoos in 1976, raising two daughters in town.

“My one daughter is moving back to town which I’m really pleased with,” she said. “It was a great place to grow up I think she recognized that.”

What keeps her coming back to volunteering in her community after all these years is simple:

“The kids. I’ve always had a real soft spot for kids. Just to be able to make art available to kids. We’re so lucky here because we have the Osoyoos Arts Centre, so I could go there anytime I wanted,” Whittaker said.

The outstanding community group award was given to the United Church Thrift Shop, which operates Tuesday through Friday collecting donated items and selling them to raise funds for the United Church to donate back to the community.

Best volunteer project was awarded to The Osoyoos Gift Cupboard, which helps provide daily essentials like socks, toothpaste and soap to those in the community who can not afford these basic needs.

The Osoyoos Dog Park Committee walked away with the outstanding community group award. The committee has been meeting since 2017 and worked closely with the town to create a much-needed dog park in the community.

This year’s awards ceremony, which had hundreds of community members and volunteers attend, had a record number of nominees for the outstanding individual volunteer award.

Nominees for outstanding individual volunteer award included: Chris Liebel, Lee Chic, Danny Barr, Mike Truchan, Leonard Gebhart, Carol Cawdell, Barb Steel, Shirley Benson, Aikum Takher, Austyn Balint, Delores Brisbois, Kevin Harrison, Bobbie Fischer, Sannah Fletcher, Linda McWhinnie and Brian Rawlings.