The 2018 Heart of Okotoks recipient truly got the most out of her volunteer efforts.
Volunteering at the Okotoks Public Library was a key component of Sharon Hudspeth’s recovery from a head-on car collision 11 years ago.
“As much as I appreciate this award, the greatest reward for me was that volunteering has given me a second chance at meaningful work and helped create my new life,” said Hudspeth at the 23rd annual Leadership Awards banquet April 18 at D’Arcy Ranch Golf Course.
Hudspeth began volunteering at the library approximately two years after her injuries.
“My time at the library gave me a sense of accomplishment and confidence,” Hudspeth said. “I had four spine procedures, changes in medication and countless hours of supportive therapy. Gradually, I began to feel better than I thought possible and was able to spend more hours volunteering each week.”
A healthier Hudspeth meant a healthier Okotoks.
She expanded her volunteer efforts in the past decade as she had worked with United Way Okotoks, fundraised with the Foothills Country Hospice, FCSS and the Friends of the Library.
She also found time to billet some hockey players when the Okotoks Bisons hosted the Junior B provincials in 2012.
“All of them offer volunteer opportunities to a wide range of people and they are great supporters of our community,” she said.
It was responding to a library advertisement asking for volunteers that helped lead to her recovery.
“When I was in the brain injury clinic we did these sequences with numbers and the alphabet,” she said in an interview after the ceremony. “I had lost my filters – I couldn’t filter out noise or music or other people talking. When I saw the ad in the Western Wheel I thought the library is quiet, they use numbers and they use the alphabet.
“After I got that sense of accomplishment: ‘I figured I could do this… I had more time to give and I couldn’t return to my original career – I was an oil-and-gas accountant—but I could do more in the community… And the library was the start of it all.”
It was a natural fit. She was a library kid while growing up in Edmonton.
“I can remember in the summer holidays walking the 10 blocks to the library once a week to sign out some books and returning them,” she said.
Hudspeth continues to read but admits it is not at the same level, mostly non-fiction and using audiobooks while she travels.
She has lived just outside of Okotoks for 20 years and was floored to be nominated for the award.
Hudspeth said when Louise Campbell, the library’s volunteer co-ordinator, told her that she planned to nominate her, it was as surprising as an Agatha Christie mystery ending.
“I didn’t believe her, I thought there must be someone else,” Hudspeth said with a smile. “When they phoned to tell me I had won, I thought: ‘What did no one else apply?’
“I have to admit I don’t do it for the recognition. I do it for what it gives me – volunteering is my whole life now.”
The other nominees for the Heart of Okotoks Award were Ben Creighton, Al Randall and Jana Giger. The group nominees were Dr. Morris Gibson Traffic Group and the Okotoks Snow Angels.
Young leaders
The Leaders of Tomorrow are making their community better right now.
Four Okotoks students were recognized as Leaders of Tomorrow at the April 18 banquet.
Calla Bailey was the recipient in the elementary school category, Naomi Loose in junior high school and Maya Povhe and Reilly Carlson for high school.
Carlson saw a chance to curb vandalism with the help of young people’s artwork.
She had noticed the beautifully decorated electric boxes in Calgary were not being vandalized, as a result she felt there was a chance to curtail some of the vandalism at Okotoks community gardens.
“I recommended that by utilizing youth artists to install a mural into the gardens they could deter further vandalism while fostering community connections with the youth involved,” said Carlson, a Grade 12 student at Foothills Composite High School.
It was a natural fit.
“When youth are given the opportunity to have a voice in the community, most are willing to,” she said. “There is a desire to help.”
Povhe, a student at Holy Trinity Academy, has volunteered many hours at the Okotoks United Church and is assisting with the Rotary International Exchange student program – she went to Switzerland through the program.
“Volunteering is something that connects everyone in the world,” she said.
“It is something that people who are willing to give up their time, energy and resources for others, (they) benefit their overall personal strength.”
She said volunteering can break down stereotypes and cultural differences.
“It is something incredibly important and powerful... that can really unite us as a world.”
Loose told the audience she is a “heterosexual, privileged, white girl and I am terrified of being judged — it is one of my biggest fears.”
That was one of the reasons she wanted to help young people who are being judged.
“What about the people who are different and society views flawed — imagine how they must feel,” Loose said.
“Always being told they are unwanted, and that being different is wrong.
“In a world of hate and closed minds these people need a safe place to be themselves and feel loved.”
As a result, Loose started the Okotoks Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Alliance — also known as the Okotoks GSA Club.
“It is a place for people of the LGBQT-plus community and their allies to come together and be celebrated and feel safe,” said Loose, a Grade 9 student at Okotoks Junior High School.
She also attempts to educate the public about the LGBQT-plus community.
“Everyone should always feel safe, secure, healthy and happy,” Loose said. “That applies to everyone not just the LGBQT-plus community.”
Calla Bailey, a student at St. Mary’s Elementary School, was unable to attend.
St. Mary’s teacher Shari Gustafson, who nominated Bailey, said the student volunteers with activities from helping with the breakfast club to making prayer blankets for those who are suffering.
“Calla serves with heart in everything she does,” Gustafson said.
“She puts others before herself — nurturing those who are in need... She is involved in so much it is amazing.”
