The Rotary Club of Ashcroft-Cache Creek has announced their 2021 Citizens of the Year, who will be honoured at an awards dinner on June 2.
Al and Marijke Stott (Ashcroft), Pat Moyer (Cache Creek), Paulet Rice (TNRD area “I”), and Jacob and Michaela Aie (youth) are the 2021 Citizens of the Year. They will all be recognized at the June 2 banquet, along with 2019 Citizens of the Year Esther Lang (Ashcroft), Shelley Magwood (Cache Creek), Carol Madden (TNRD Area “I”), and Vivian McLean (youth), and first responders and frontline workers, who collectively were recognized in 2020.
Club president Theresa Takacs says they received nearly a dozen nominations for 2021, some of them duplicates of past honorees.
“Al and Marijke Stott are a low-key couple who are very involved in the community,” she says. “Marijke has run yoga classes for a number of years, and a lot of the money is donated back to the Village of Ashcroft for improvements at the community hall, where the classes are held.”
Pat Moyer has been a longtime volunteer in Cache Creek and the area. She was an organizer of the Cache Creek Canada Day celebrations and has worked with the Girl Guides, the Cache Creek Elementary School Parent Advisory Council, Emergency Support Services, and the Red Cross Loan Cupboard.
“Paulet Rice was nominated by two different people, for her kindness and giving in spite of personal tragedies,” says Takacs. “She went above and beyond the call to open her café [the Packing House in Spences Bridge] at all hours for firefighters as they fought Lytton Creek fire, and she belongs to the Spences Bridge fire department and is a first responder.
“She helps the marginalized in the community by shopping for them and doing acts of kindness to help their way of life, and is part of the Spences Bridge Improvement District.”
Brother and sister Jacob and Michaela Aie are the 2021 youth recipients. “Jacob is a volunteer with Ashcroft Fire Rescue, has been involved in theatre productions, and is an all-round good kid,” says Takacs. “Michaela has raised money to help those affected by the Lytton fire and for other causes. At her young age, she took the initiative and did the work.”
All are invited to attend the dinner, which will be at 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) on Thursday, June 2 at the Ashcroft HUB. Tickets for the dinner — which includes a no-host bar — are $25, and can be purchased online at https://bit.ly/389kCTv. They can also be purchased in person at Interior Savings in Ashcroft, the Royal Bank in Cache Creek, and the Ashcroft HUB. Ticket sales end on May 26.
editorial@accjournal.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter