Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
VOLUNTEER MANITOBA AWARDS GALA
Club Regent Events Centre
Thursday, May 1, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
(please check against delivery)
Fellow Manitobans, mentors and leaders and volunteers – it’s a pleasure to join you for this large and diverse gathering of community builders.
We are gathered this evening in a place where community building has deep roots – in the heart of Treaty One land and the homeland of the Red River Metis.
This province, located on the treaty territories and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota and Dene nations and the homeland of the Red River Métis, is a place where many people have worked together to build homes, security, culture and prosperity.
We have recently been living through a time of uncertainty and threat that has brought out an outpouring of love for Canada.
Canadian flags that might have only been brought out of storage for Canada Day or an Olympic hockey championship are popping up in windows and on flagpoles all over.
Canadians have outed themselves as lovers of their country, singing O Canada with renewed enthusiasm, and speaking about the things they love about this land and its people.
It’s not that we didn’t love our country until people started to threaten it. Rather, our love was a quieter thing, expressed through action, rather than words and symbols.
Canadians have expressed their love by working to make it better, by caring for one another, by getting involved and giving of themselves to enhance the lives of their neighbours.
Nothing better showcases that love than our great tradition of volunteer service – something that enhances the health, safety and happiness of people in communities throughout Canada and all around Manitoba.
The Volunteer Manitoba Awards provide a remarkable picture of the range and depth of volunteer commitment. With awards for youth, for people in urban, rural and northern communities, for groups and individuals, for volunteer leadership, for pro-bono service to volunteer organizations and for service in the field of mental health, these awards show us the past, present and future of volunteer service.
Tonight’s award recipients have spent years serving their communities, their province and their country. And their dedication will continue far into the future.
To all of you, and to Volunteer Manitoba, thank you for giving us something to celebrate this evening.
Thank you. Merci. Meegwich. Shalom
