Every year at the Senior’s Fish Fry at McArthur Place, Lac La Biche’s Citizen of the Year is named. And this year there was twice as much cause for celebration, as two Lac La Biche patriarchs were named Co-Citizens of the Year with over 20 nominations apiece, along with an enthusiastic young volunteer who was awarded Junior Citizen of the Year.
Duane Young, a member of the Lac La Biche community for 40 years, who served three years as councillor and two terms as mayor, has probably given thousands upon thousands of hours to Lac La Biche over the years, and just as much money out of his pocket.
Starting with the beer at the Senior’s Fish Fry, which Duane donates every year, Duane contributes to Hope Haven Women’s Shelter’s annual golf tournament every year, amongst many other personal donations.
Young has served on the Chamber of Commerce, the Pow Wow Association, and in fact was one of the originators of the Citizen of the Year award 30 years ago.
He is also an honourable member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation as well as the Kikino Métis Settlement due to his tireless efforts.
For himself, Duane said one of his proudest moments of public service was a move he made as mayor of Lac La Biche.
“We spearheaded a policy concept with the government that towns under 5,000 don’t have to pay for policing. We got 40 rural mayors together. We did have some clout,” Duane said proudly.
Any city official who saves his constituents money is a valuable one, and Duane and his compatriots built Lac La Biche’s water treatment plant half a million dollars under-budget—another career high for Duane.
Always the pragmatist, Duane added one of his career disappointments, looking back over the years.
“When we amalgamated, the town of Lac La Biche, by population, was supposed to have three representatives, and we only got two. That was my most disappointing moment,” Duane said.
When asked what made his years in Lac La Biche so constructive and successful, Duane said that communication was tantamount.
“We debated all the time—that’s the key. That’s what I’d tell the young folks. You’ve got to communicate. Keep talking, because you’ll always find a solution. You can disagree,” Duane said. “But you’ve got to move on.
Langford is
Co-Citizen of the Year
Another pillar of the community known for his unceasing energy to bring about positive change is local educator Ted Langford, who was a teacher in the public school system for many years, where he led choir and band, before becoming president of Portage College for a quarter of a century.
Fortunately for this venerable publication, Ted, with fellow teacher Ron Moore, established the Post over 40 years ago.
“Around the same time as Pow Wow actually, a very nice lady started the paper. She kept it going eight months, but it was too much, and so she said unless somebody stepped up to the plate, it’s going to fold. So we did. The two of us took it over and ran it while we taught school. We even got students to help put it together,” Ted explained.
Ted was also the originator of one of the most anticipated and iconic events at Lac La Biche Pow Wow Days—the Homemade Jam.
Started in 1967, the first show was on a homemade stage, with a piano and guitar on homeplate on the baseball diamond.
Having served on many local councils and committees, Ted is a natural when it comes to working with people, and to see him amongst the crowd of well-wishers at the event, it is clear that he genuinely enjoys the fellowship of his fellow citizens.
When asked what made him spend so many hours of his free time devoted to improving his community, Ted laughed and said with a twinkle at his wife: “It’s a way of avoiding cleaning my garage.”
Getting serious, Ted explained that getting involved may take time and effort but the rewards are many—in the form of opportunity.
“I enjoy working with people, I enjoy contributing, I enjoy learning. If something is of interest to you, if you’ve got a passion, find some like-minded people and go for it.”
Junior Citizen
Junior Citizen of the Year Daley Yakoweshen was nominated for going above and beyond in his role as volunteer.
For the last five years, Daley had done the set-up and take-down for the Lac La Biche Safety Awareness Society safety fair.
This year however, one of the bike safety presentors pulled a no-show and fair organizers were scrambling to fill the time. When they asked Daley if he thought he might do it, the Grade 9 student said that he’d never done anything like it before, but, loathe to leave 200 school children in the lurch, he said he’d give it a whirl.
“For the first three sessions, I was very, very nervous, but it actually went surprisingly well,” Daley said.
When asked what he’d learned from this experience, Daley replied: “No matter what the situation is, even if it’s something very hard, that you have no experience at, you have to make yourself have the courage to go through with it and get it done.”
It is no surprise, with the can-do attitude of Lac La Biche’s Citizens of the Year, that so many of the institutions we see in Lac La Biche everyday are part of their handiwork.
President of Lac La Biche’s Chamber of Commerce, Mel Kuprowsky, who presented the Citizens with their awards commended their strength and community commitment, along with all the other community volunteers who give of themselves.
“Their actions make our county a beautiful and joyful place to live,” he said.
In his acceptance speech, Ted Langford addressed his fellow Lac La Biche citizens about their vitality as a community, to their amusement.
“I like the feisty nature of this community,” Ted said with a little smile. “We don’t always get along, in fact, we seem to fight about things. But that’s because people around here care, and that is far better than indifference.”
