For the Salmond family of Nipawin, Saskatchewan, volunteering has become a family activity. Quentin and Sharla Salmond have instilled in their four boys the understanding that the sports events they all enjoy cannot happen without volunteer support, and they provide a strong example by taking on volunteer responsibility themselves.
The Salmonds have been members of Nipawin’s Twin Lakes Trail Blazers Snowmobile Club for five years, and have helped with trail maintenance, fundraising and event organization. They also participate in many recreational rides.
Efforts recognized
The family’s efforts were recently recognized with an award from the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association (SSA): the Outstanding Snowmobile Family of the Year for 2012. The work of 11-year-old Deklin Salmond—the eldest of the boys—has received notice too. He was presented with the SSA’s 2012 award for Outstanding Junior Achiever of the Year.
“We had the provincial festival here last year,” said Sharla, “and Deklin put in hours and hours of selling SSA tickets and organizing gift bags and helping out. For a kid his age, he really stood out in the crowd. The SSA people commented that he really knows what it takes in terms of volunteer effort.”
As for the future
Sharla said that the younger boys—Trace, Landen and Reyner—are also familiar with the culture of volunteerism. She hopes that, given the family example, the boys will grow up to be high achievers with an appreciation for the foundational values on which those achievements are built.
