Lifetime Achievement Citizen of the Year - 2021

LIFETIME CITIZEN ACHIEVEMENT 2021

cardston.ca/citizen-of-the-year

David Innes is the recipient of the 2021 Long Life Achievement Citizenship Award.

This good man has lived in Cardston for about 45 years and has been quietly doing good things since the day he came.  To those who have known David for a long time, these few following words seem to tell the story:  “Service through volunteer work in the community.”  David is constantly and consistently giving of himself to the community.

Here are a few of his lifelong accomplishments as a volunteer:

His whole life in Southern Alberta, David has especially strived to build better relationships with our First Nation neighbors and friends.  David was involved in the organization of the first Cardston Moses Lake Pow wow and worked side by side with the late Oliver Shouting who was a Councillor of the Blood Tribe.  Over the past 12 years, David has served as an active member of the Pow wow Committee and has served as either the Chairman or Vice Chairman for the past 7 years on the Committee.  Last year and this year, he successfully organized the mini Pow wows with the support of Councillor Tony Delaney of the Blood Tribe.

David is a humanitarian at heart who can always be counted on to serve the needs of the community at large.  He worked with Tia Fox (Kainai FCSS director) to organize the annual community food drive for the food bank in Standoff.  He worked as the head of a committee that organized the Church wards and community organizations to provide, cook, and serve three meals a week at the soup kitchen.  He organized the yearly coat and toy drive for the indigenous members of the Kainai reserve, which was later combined with the food drive.  He was the driving force for the Moses Lake community cleanup for many consecutive years.  He got several church groups to help indigenous members plant gardens and trees.

David believes in the importance of building relationships, especially with those who are not of the dominant faith group in town.  He has visited with every religious leader of the other denominations in the community to build bridges of friendship, acceptance, and understanding with them.

When you see David on Main Street, you will notice that he strives to address every First Nation person he comes in contact with in their Blackfoot language and he even encourages others in the community to download the Blackfoot language app to master basic greeting sentences.

His work with the residents of the Blood Reserve is that of compassion and understanding with a special insight into the needs of all people of this area.

Much more could be said about David and all the things he has initiated, supported, organized, and made sure the needs of others have been met.  He is unassuming, never looking for recognition and goes quietly, doing good wherever he can help.  For example, if you enjoyed Party in the Park in the past, David has been in charge of the parking at that event for years.

Today, we celebrate David’s lifelong achievement, but behind this good man is a very giving person, his dear wife, Carol, who never stood in the way of her husband’s desire to serve in the community.

His accomplishments are enormous and many individuals, and our society as a whole, are the benefactors of his efforts.  One who strives to build bridges and establish better relationships with all of his neighbours around him.

Congratulations, David!  Your award represents over 30 years of service in this community!  

Thank you!