Not all news is bad news.
In fact, here at the Record, we pride ourselves in taking the time to salute the good things and people in our city. Every year, our pages are filled with stories of people who make a difference to the city in ways big and small.
At the end of the year, we’re pausing to take a look back at some of the people we encountered in 2015 – and we salute them with our If Everyone Were Like Them, The World Would Be a Better Place award.
Here are our winners for 2015:
Andrée St. Martin
For 28 of the 48 years that make up the New Westminster Arts Council’s history, she was the quiet driving force behind it all.
Known as a tireless worker and advocate for the arts, St. Martin served as the council’s executive director until she moved on this past year – striving to provide a home and a centre for the city’s flourishing and ever-growing arts and culture community.
She was awarded a lifetime membership to the Arts Council of New Westminster at its annual general meeting this year in recognition of her contributions.
And there’s good news for the city’s arts community: St. Martin hasn’t gone very far. She’s now working for Massey Theatre, which means her dedication to the city’s arts community will continue to serve us all well.
Lynn Radbourne
Lynn Radbourne likely ruffled a few feathers when she left the Hyack Festival Association and started the New Westminster Youth Ambassador Program, after heading Hyack’s Miss New Westminster Ambassador Program for man years. Radbourne showed true dedication in establishing the program that strives to provide young men and women with the space to grow through mentorship, teamwork and volunteerism.
If you attended any community events in New Westminster in the past year, chances are you spotted the ambassadors in action – and Radbourne likely wasn’t far away.
Radbourne’s years of community service were rewarded with a well-deserved Citizen of the Year Award in 2015, making her only the second person to win both the Citizen of the Year and Bernie Legge Cultural Award.
Emily Wager
Emily Wager and her family have long been known to make the city a little brighter by getting dressed up and decorating the yard of their Queen’s Park home for Halloween each year, raising funds for charity along the way. This year, they had 1,200 trick or treaters at their home.
But Emily’s kind-hearted ways reached new levels in December when she offered to bake cookies (orders of up to 1,000 cookies) for folks who donated to a Buy Bob a Scooter fundraising campaign that she launched to help her neighbour get a much-needed scooter. The community quickly got on board – and bought a lot of yummy cookies – enabling Emily to buy that much-needed scooter for her neighbour Bob Jarvis in time for Christmas.
“It means I can get out and see the world again,” Jarvis said of the scooter that will help him get around.
John Stark
John Stark, New Westminster’s senior social planner, expertly juggles a range of duties that include overseeing the dementia friendly strategy, child care, homelessness and family-friendly housing.
Need a point person to coordinate the Syrian refugees in New Westminster? John’s your man.
Stark doesn’t live in New Westminster, but he genuinely cares about what’s happening in the city and strives to make it a better place – for everyone.
While there’s no doubt many city employees have a lot of work on their plates, Stark’s ability to manage a diverse range of issues – always with a smile on his face and the community’s interest at heart – is admirable.
Cassius Khan and Amika Kushwaha
This Queensborough couple is a powerhouse in the arts world – not just here in New Westminster, but in Canada and beyond.
The two are talented artists in their own right – Khan is a renowned tabla player, and Kushwaha a kathak dancer – as well as teaching local students. More importantly, the two serve as ambassadors for the world of Indian classical music and strive to make it accessible to everyone, regardless of culture or background. Each year, they organize the Mushtari Begum Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance in New Westminster, bringing world-class artists to the stage and inviting the community in to experience more about what the art forms of the Indian classical world are all about.
For their efforts to promote the arts and cross-cultural understanding, we salute them.
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To the folks we’ve listed here, and to the countless others who are working quietly to make a difference in New Westminster and beyond, we send our thanks.
We look forward to seeing more of you all in 2016.
