Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Northern Sunrise County Protective Services is gearing up to host its annual Awards Night for its team of dedicated volunteers who strive to make our community safer.
The County’s fire chief and director of protective services David LeBlanc says that the Awards Night is a great opportunity to thank the protective services team for going above and beyond to protect those in dire situations in our community.
“We host the awards night every year to ensure our team is recognized for what they do,” explains LeBlanc.
“We have three fire halls that work together, and they are all going to be at our awards night to be celebrated,” he adds.
The awards will be hosted on March 22 at 6 p.m. at the St. Isidore Cultural Centre.
“The evening will have a dinner, presentations and achievement awards,” says LeBlanc.
“There will be time allotted for the reeve (Corinna Williams) and chief administrative officer (Cindy Millar) to say a few words to our dedicated women and men.”
LeBlanc says there are currently 25 firefighters on the team of protective services volunteers, and they will be recognized in many capacities. The awards include Officer-of-the-Year, Director of Protective Services Firefighter Merit Award, and Officer-of-the-Year, among many others.
“We are also looking to add members to our team,” says LeBlanc. “We would like to see at least 35 members in total between all three fire halls. Adding extra members would help to cover holidays or when people can’t get away from work to attend calls.”
LeBlanc says they have a very large boundary they cover and adding extra members will help to take some of the onus off the current team. NSC Protective Services currently covers from the M.D. of Smoky River border north to halfway down East Hill of Peace River, west to the river by Marie Reine and east to the hamlet of Cadotte Lake.
“Being a volunteer firefighter, you can help 25 of your firefighter neighbours to help create a sense of ownership in the community,” LeBlanc says.
“We provide training, critical incident debriefing, counselling, and so much more. It’s a paid-on call position, and it helps to create a sense of community involvement and it’s very rewarding,” he adds.
LeBlanc says being on a firefighting crew is like being a part of a family, he urges anyone with interest to join the team.
If you are interested in joining the Northern Sunrise County Protective Services team, reach out to LeBlanc at dleblanc@northernsunrise.net