To get youth to volunteer, make it fun, speak their language, and let them drive the bus.
That’s the message from the Junior Citizen and Citizen of the Year recipients as the Lloydminster Lions handed out the awards at its regular social.
In keeping with tradition, both awardees were surprised that they had been invited to speak, and even more kept in the dark by close friends and even parents.
Kianna Wildeman, the youth awardee, has a tremendous contribution to her community that goes back to when she stood on a chair to see over the counter and sell Christmas trees in the annual Kinsmen fundraiser.
Whether volunteering at Here Comes Santa, the Lloydminster Kinettes, Interval Store, leading swimming lessons at Brightsands Regional Park, and Youth Ambassador for TeleMiracle, Kianna’s giving spirit speaks volumes as she recruits more of her generation to give back.
“Doing more fundraisers that engage youth. Having their voices heard through social media and platforms that are recognizable to them, and making sure that they know what the impact is on their community and how it benefits them as well,” says Kianna.
The Youth Ambassador is currently studying nursing at the U of S. She is involved in the Saskatoon and District Kinettes and recruiting youth on Campus to get involved.
One idea Kianna shared was getting students at Lakeland College to volunteer with the Lloydminster Lions in the same way that her peers at the U of S are getting involved with the Kin Foundation.
The Citizen of the Year recipient says he dearly loves Lloydminster.
“I love Lloydminster. It’s that simple,” says Otis Rusling.
During the many months of the Covid-19 pandemic he took pictures of the city and posted to social media. That effort would become a picture-book called Snapshots of Lloydminster.
Rusling came to the border city in 1978 to “be close to agriculture, and it melded well with his oil industry passion.”
“It was a place I looked forward to coming to. I never regretted it for a minute. Even though I have worked away a lot, I have always kept my house here, and I always came back,” says Rusling.
His volunteering spirit extends to Border City Connects where he started off as a volunteer driver for the medical van. He served six years on the board and though he retired this year, he is staying on to serve the non-profit which he sees as the most impactful organization for its community service.
In the 2000s he took on a leadership role in the Blazers Hockey team which would later become the Lloydminster Bobcats. There is a plaque on the wall of the Centennial Civic Centre which highlights a small part of that chapter of community giving.
Friends of Weaver Park and the preservation of the buildings and artifacts of the quarter section of recreation space is also a consuming passion for Rusling, coupled with chairing the public art committee which has delivered the Faces of Lloydminster among other pieces.
On volunteering and getting younger blood to pitch in, Rusling says,” Eventually you’ve got to let young people drive the bus, you can’t just keep them as passengers. They won’t stay. They will go away. If you want your organization to attract young people, you have to let them drive the bus.”
