Volunteers recognized at Stars of Alberta awards

It's been a hard year, butthe light at the end of the tunnel is made a bit brighter by Albertanswholend a helping hand to those in need.

You may see themorganizing parades for health-care workers, dedicating programs to youth or just cheering up those around them.

Some of those volunteershad their efforts recognized on Monday at the 2020 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Awards.

Theawards started in 2000 and coincidewith International Volunteer Daya global initiative established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985.

Since the ceremony's launch, 136 Alberta volunteers have received the honour.

This year's ceremony was done over Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions, but still celebrated the nine recipients' invaluable contributions.

Joyce McCoy, one of this year's winners, is a resident ofDidsburywho works toward making her community a better place.

McCoy retired in November 2019. Over the last few years she's built websites for local businesses, crochetedpoppies for Remembrance Day and organizedparades for health-care workers.

"If you're a volunteer, you know, you just get such satisfaction from helping others and from making your community better," she toldThe Homestretchon Thursday.

McCoy says that at beginning of COVID-19, she organized two appreciation parades for workers at the local hospital and long-term care facility.

The volunteer also started a Facebook page called "A Better Didsbury" to support localbusinesses dealing with economic hardships.

"It became a very essential place for people to go find out who is open and you know what restaurants were open, if they were doing dine-in or take-out that sort of thing," she said.

"It's become a great place for the community to know what's going on in our businesses."

A young Albertan also saw his name on the list of awards.

Brennan O'Yeung, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Calgary, turned his passion for science and escape rooms into a volunteer organization dedicated to Indigenous youth.

The program is called"Escape with STEM."

"The award means more to me than just the recognition. It really means that my work in the community is being validated and people are really, you know, seeing the impact that Escape with STEM hasbeen able to give to others," he told The Homestretchon Friday.

O'Yeung sayshis organizationcombines escape room style experiences with STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

"Escape with STEM was created to inspire youth, especially in the Indigenous sector, to engage more with STEM related concepts and hopefully inspire them to pursue a career STEM in the future," he said.

He says the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

"When we were at a school, there's one particular girl who was incredible at solving the puzzles with her teams. At the end of the day, her mom actually came up to me and said, 'Well, thank you so much for putting on the workshop for us today. I just want to let you know that my daughter really enjoyed working on the puzzles and typically in classrooms, she's not as strong with the strength of learningin terms of examination,'" he said.

"'But with hands-on activities she was really able to shine and it's really helped her confidence.'"

The program is specifically geared toward Indigenous youth because of whatO'Yeungobserved within his own university program.

"There is a disparity, especially in Indigenous youth that were in STEM and specifically engineering, so basically putting those two together, I thought, why couldn't I do something to maybe provide some opportunities and initiatives," he said.

"It's about that impact that we can make on others."

Full list of recipients

Here is the full list of this year's recipientsof the 2020 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Awards:

• Amanda Hardman (youth), Stony Plain
• Brennan O'Yeung (youth), Calgary
• Joyce McCoy (adult), Didsbury
• Jayanta (Jay) Chowdhury (adult), Calgary
• Frieda Maynard (senior), Edson
• Kathleen (Kathy) King (senior), Edmonton
• Salima Versi (breaking barriers anti-racism), Edmonton
• Anjum Mullick (breaking barriers fighting gender discrimination), Edmonton
• Kelly Ernst (breaking barriers LGBTQ2S+ advocacy), Calgary

With files fromThe Homestretch.