Councilor Aaron Buckingham, after a full day at council meeting was able to fulfill an invitation for a speaking engagement and was totally surprised when he was conferred the Citizen of the Year award by the Lloydminster Lions Club.
In a tradition that dates back to the 1950s, the recipient is invited to speak about a project that they are involved in, while not having a clue that the real reason the Lions Club has them as the guest speaker is to give them an award.
The Lloydminster city councilor who is also a Britannia firefighter took the surprise accolade with humility and a loss for words, which those who know him well would have paid good money to see him in that composure.
“There are no words. (long pause) I don’t even know what to say. I will say I don’t deserve it. There are so many more people in this community that do things that deserve this far more than I do. The fact that they brought me in to speak about the charity hockey game that we ran last Friday – I feel a little bamboozled that I didn’t pick up on this at all.”
The Lions worked their clandestine ruse to perfection as Buckingham spoke on the second edition of the Play It Forward 12-hour hockey game. Friday’s game saw over 40-players put their bodies on the line and raise some $70,400 and counting for Border City Connects to buy a new careavan to take clients to non-emergency medical appointments in urban centres.
Following Buckingham’s pitch, Ray Tatro of the Lloydminster Lions got up to deliver his comments which included the surprise accolade.
“He had a very emotional story about about his relative that needed the services of a handy-van society as she was growing up – and how much of a difference that made to her life. And the way that Border City Connects makes such a difference to a number of people in our city and our area. That obviously needs funding and has a great strong board with great ideas. As well as all the other things that Aaron does.”
One of those things was Buckingham’s involvement in the fundraising for a statue of an RCMP officer which is situated on the grounds of city hall. The statue which was unveiled in 2003 has a plaque on it that simply reads Hope.
“I did that shortly before my grandfather passed away. And for whatever reason, the night that my grandfather passed away – I lived close by. And I walked over, and I sat at it. We had unveiled it with the Hope at the front of it. I sat there by myself, and it was the first time that I experienced it. I had seen it from clay. I saw it before it was moulded in Rudy’s studio down by Wainwright.”
Some $200,000 was raised to have the Hope statue erected.
Buckingham says he lives by a simple slogan which is to focus on the success of others and your success will naturally follow.