By Kyle Reid | Nov. 26
The City of Mount Pearl has yet to release the list of finalists for the Richard Levandier Citizen of the Year Award, but at least two active Mount Pearl volunteers have been nominated for the prestigious award, The Pearl News has learned.
Steve Kent and Wanda Tiller both have long records of community involvement. The names of the other nominees, if any, are being kept close to the chest this year by the City as they select finalists from nominations submitted by Mount Pearl community members.
Kent, a long-time political figure in the city and province, and, most recently, the City of Mount Pearl’s chief administrative officer until last June, has volunteered with a number of organizations in Mount Pearl, including Scouts Canada.
While Kent has always been an active volunteer in the City, his departure from political office in 2017 has afforded him a bit of extra time to spend as a volunteer, he said.
“It started when I was a young person involved in student and youth activities in the community,” Kent said. “As I got older and got involved in public life, my volunteer activities took on a different focus…In recent years I’ve been more active as a community volunteer than before.”
This past year, Kent helped run the local Scouting group in Mount Pearl, and served as past chairman of the Scouts Canada national board of governors, and chair of the national nominating committee. Internationally, he served as the Canadian head of contingent to the 23rd World Scouting Jamboree, as an honorary consultant to the World Scout Parliamentary Union and as second vice-president of the Interamerican Scout Foundation.
Kent was also involved in the local Rotary Club, Lions Club, Knights of Columbus, the Branch 36 Legion, the Salvation Army, Mount Pearl food banks, Mount Pearl minor hockey and minor baseball and, on occasion, as a volunteer at the VOAR radio station in Mount Pearl.
For Kent, the volunteer spirit in Mount Pearl is what makes the city stand out.
“The level of volunteerism and the extent of community spirit that exists in Mount Pearl is part of what makes us unique,” Kent said. “It’s part of why I’ve chosen to build a future here and raise a family here.”
While the list of finalists has yet to be released by the City, it was an honour just to be nominated for the award, Kent said.
“I’m honoured to have a chance to give back to a place that has given me so much,” said Kent. “I am deeply humbled and honoured to be nominated for Citizen of the Year. When I look at past nominees as winners they are a group of citizens who have done so much to contribute to making Mount Pearl better. It’s a great honour just to be counted among them as a nominee.”
It’s a sentiment shared by fellow nominee, Wanda Tiller.
“Shocked, but very honoured,” said Tiller when asked how it felt to be nominated for Citizen of the Year. “It was a complete surprise; I volunteer not for the recognition, I volunteer because I love it. I’m beyond honoured.”
Tiller is an over 30 year volunteer with the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival where she started by selling buttons door to door to raise funds, and most recently sat on the Frosty Festival board of directors, a position she took on four years ago.
She has also volunteered for 35 years with the local Girl Guides, receiving the Mount Pearl Adult Working with Youth Award in 2012 for her work as the Girl Guide district commissioner, and has volunteered with the St. John’s Shriners and as a crossing guard at Morris Academy.
It wasn’t any particular drive that got Tiller interested in volunteer work, she said. It was simpler than that.
“I just saw these volunteers having fun,” Tiller said. “It wasn’t just going door-to-door and selling the (Frosty Festival) buttons and bringing back the money…(it) was the camaraderie between the volunteers, that’s how I started with that. It was the same with Girl Guides. I brought my daughter to Sparks and I saw these leaders having so much fun…so I asked how I could be a Spark leader and she went ‘Come back next week.”
For Tiller, the nomination has a special meaning. The award, sponsored by the Mount Pearl Kinsmen, is named after fellow Kinsman and long-time Mount Pearl community volunteer Richard Levandier, someone who Tiller knew personally.
“(Levandier) told me years ago, ‘Wanda, you will always be a volunteer because it’s in your heart,’” said Tiller. “That always stuck with me, I love it.”
But Tiller maintains that she is the one benefitting the most from her volunteer work.
“I’m not sure if important is the word I’d use,” she said when asked why she thought it was important to volunteer. “Giving to organizations that need volunteers, I get 120 per cent back. I’ve met so many fabulous people; some of my best friends, life-long friends (have) been through volunteering.”
