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Let's keep a time-honoured Orillia tradition alive

In our first weekly editorial, OrilliaMatters offers kudos to city council and volunteers for stepping up
winner congratulations stock

We know, just as you know, that Orillia is a unique place. It’s a community of great wealth and desperate poverty. It’s a city blessed with natural beauty where people come to seek refuge – a place that gets into your soul and spirit until, like a dog that wiggles and wriggles and twirls until he finds just that right spot, you discover this place has become home.

While there is much to love about Orillia, it is its people that set it apart. This community is blessed with people who care deeply for their neighbours and their city; they lend a hand, donate money, provide a shoulder to cry on, offer words of encouragement and provide support and assistance often out of proportion to their ability to give.

So, it is heartening to see that this community will once again recognize one of their own with the Citizen of the Year award. When The Packet & Times closed, suddenly, in November, it appeared the daily newspaper’s time-honoured tradition of selecting a citizen of the year would also die. Thankfully, that will not happen.

A tip of the hat to Orillia’s city council that recognized the importance of the award and the spirit it embodies by unanimously agreeing in December to help facilitate the creation of an ad-hoc committee aimed at continuing the tradition.

In Mayor Steve Clarke’s City Hall office, just before Christmas, that group – including former staff at The Packet in addition to community members and several previous winners – assembled for the first time and it was clearly evident that there was a deep desire to continue this award that has become a quintessential component of the community. Earlier this week, the group put out the message that it is seeking nominations for the 2017 Orillia Citizen of the Year Award.

We encourage you to step up and nominate someone worthy. Just as in the past, the award is meant to recognize a community champion. It’s not a lifetime achievement award but, rather, is meant to recognize someone who has done something notable in 2017, although the length of time a nominee has been involved in the community will also be considered.

Previous winners have done incredible things – from spearheading the construction of the Stephen Leacock boathouse to championing campaigns to save the hospital. Other winners have rallied the community to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, while some have led efforts to aid the environment, to end homelessness, to protect victims’ rights, to prevent hunger and poverty and other important causes.

The deadline for nominations is noon on Monday, Jan. 22. Nominations can be emailed to [email protected] or delivered to the office of Mayor Steve Clarke: 50 Andrew St. S., Suite 300, Orillia, ON, L3V 7T5. Submissions must include the full name of and contact information for the nominator and a detailed explanation of why the nominee deserves to be named Citizen of the Year.

What are you waiting for?


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