The Maple Ridge Community Foundation will announce its Citizen of the Year at an annual fundraising dinner on Saturday.
The Citizen of the Year award has been presented since 1992. The three finalists are chosen based on their outstanding history of volunteer contributions in Maple Ridge.
Past award recipients have been recognized for their work with fundraising, hospice, coaching, education, community, culture, youth, service clubs, music, environment, childcare and nursing.
This years three finalists are Cheryl Ashlie, Josine Eikelenboom and Dr. Biju Mathew.
Ashlie has been involved in the community for over two decades.
She has led and contributed to projects and programs, including the Alouette River Management Society, the MS Walk/Run, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services, North Fraser Therapeutic Riding Association, Ridge Meadows Educational Foundation and the Canadian CIS Friendship Exchange Society.
Ashlie has served on several volunteer non-profit boards and committees and has supported community events such as the Terry Fox Run, Ridge Meadows Hospice Vista Run and local Christmas hampers.
Eikelenboom is a long-time community volunteer who enjoys connecting with people. She has been a volunteer artistic director for the Maple Ridge Music Society for 35 years. As artistic director, she has brought many internationally famous musicians to Maple Ridge to play.
Eikelenboom has worked with the Salvation Army, preparing the morning breakfasst and helping to assemble lunch packs. She also volunteered for many years as a companion and errand-runner for home-bound individuals through Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services.
Dr. Biju Mathew embodies the spirit of philanthropy and under his leadership the South Asian Cultural Society Annual Gala has raised tens of thousands of dollars to support various charitable organizations in the community.
Dr. Mathew has also served as a mechanism for engaging the diverse communities in Maple Ridge and used his leadership skills to drive change in the community. He was instrumental in initiating the Youth Wellness Centre and Nurse Practitioner initiatives in Maple Ridge. His volunteer service with these projects continues to break down barriers for local young people to access timely and responsive medical and counselling services.
The guest speaker this year will be Robb Lucy, author of the book How Will You Be Remembered? A Guide for Creating and Enjoying Your Legacies Now.
Lucy will be talking about the importance of leaving a legacy.
Life-long friend of the author and Maple Ridge Community Foundation board member Rick Howard would like people to consider the foundation when leaving a legacy.
“The Maple Ridge Community Foundation is able to be gifted pretty much any form of asset to be used by the foundation at the direction of whoever the gifter is. That’s what the foundation does,” said Howard.
“We manage those assets as directed by the gifter and their wishes,” he said, adding that the foundation is involved in endowment funds and in giving away money to charities in the Maple Ridge area.
In fact at last years dinner it was announced that a fundraising campaign called the 25/40 Legacy Campaign was being started to raise $200,000 to add to the foundation’s endowment and other funds.
They surpassed their goal last fall and increased the amount to $300,000.
At Saturday’s dinner it will be announced they have met this goal as well.
The Maple Ridge Community Foundation’s Annual Fundraising Dinner takes place on May 13 at Meadow Gardens Golf Club, 19675 Meadow Gardens Way in Pitt Meadows.
Doors open at 6 p.m. for cocktails with dinner at 7 p.m.
Olympian Karina Leblanc will be the emcee this year.
The theme for this year’s event is Mad for Maple Ridge, celebrating the Mad Men, 1960s style.
• For more information go to mrcf.ca.
