2010 Award Recipients

2010 Award Recipients

The Annual General Meeting and Awards Luncheon of the Lung Association of Saskatchewan were held in Saskatoon on April 16, 2010.

His Worship, Mayor Don Atchison, brought greetings on behalf of the City of Saskatoon

Life Membership in the Lung Association of Saskatchewan was conferred upon Beverly Engele of Surrey and Paul Van Loon of Saskatoon.

The Lung Association of Saskatchewan Award of Merit was presented to the Health Quality Council, Vicki Kennedy, Audrey McLelland, SaskTel TelCare and zu.

The Lung Association of Saskatchewan Certificate of Appreciation was presented to Chantel Huber and Saskatoon Health Region Telehealth.

The Annual Report for 2009 was presented.

Five people were elected for two-year terms on the Lung Association of Saskatchewan Board of Directors: Helen Cotton of Saskatoon, Eric Diehl of Regina, Al Hattie of Saskatoon, Brent Kitchen of Regina and Darcy Marciniuk of Saskatoon.

The results of the election of officers for 2010 are:
Board Chairperson: Frank Scott of Saskatoon
Past Chairperson: Marilyn Reddy of Regina
Vice Chairperson: Helen Cotton of Saskatoon
Treasurer: Pat Smith of Regina

Certificate of Appreciation

Chantel Huber, CTV Saskatoon

Chantel Huber accepts The Lung Association of Saskatchewan Certificate of Appreciation.

 

We would like to introduce Chantel Huber who co-anchors the CTV News Six o’clock report as well as the Late Night News.

Chantel joined CTV Saskatoon in February, 2007, after spending several years reporting and anchoring in both Saskatchewan and Alberta cites. Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Chantel attended the University of Regina and went on to complete Broadcast Journalism at the Lethbridge Community College.

She began her television career at CTV Yorkton as a Video Journalist and has since worked as a reporter and anchor for various other television stations. Prior to coming back to Saskatchewan in 2005, Chantel worked for a television station in Edmonton where she hosted her own nightly health segment.

Chantel has been nominated for the certificate of merit by The Lung Association of Saskatchewan for her passionate commitment to delivering lung health awareness and information to the community. Chantel has covered many news stories with the Lung Association of Saskatchewan this year. To date, she has worked with one of our nurses Jill Frigon in covering many health stories. Some of the topics include seasonal flu, H1N1, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thank you Chantel for your dedication to making our community a safer and healthier place.

Certificate of Appreciation

Saskatoon Health Region Telehealth

Christine Milne, Carrie Opalko-Windecker, Jennifer Falastein, and Irene Kutsiuruba accept The Lung Association of Saskatchewan Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of Saskatoon Health Region Telehealth.
 

To quote Robert Frost:
“But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep”
 

This could describe the work of the Lung Association of Saskatchewan as we endeavor to provide services to communities across the province if it were not for the wonders of technology. Today we want to salute the staff of the Saskatoon Telehealth office, our partners in providing educational presentations to far flung areas such as Goodsoil, Beauval and Oxbow simultaneously. This service has saved our staff many hundreds of travel miles and countless hours away from the office.

The Lung Association of Saskatchewan also provides continuing education to RespTrec graduates across Western Canada. This would not have been possible without the expert Telehealth staff who helped to host and coordinate these broadcasts with cities across the west, often after their normal working hours.

We thank the staff for their willingness to provide service in a friendly, helpful manner. We look forward to continuing to partner with them.

Award of Merit

Health Quality Council

Erin Walling accepts the Lung Association of Saskatchewan Award of Merit on behalf of the Health Quality Council.

 

We are pleased to recognize the Health Quality Council of Saskatchewan for the tremendous efforts they have made to facilitate optimal care for people living with lung disease. Health Quality Council’s mission is to improve the quality of care and the caring experience in Saskatchewan by encouraging use of best practice. We are pleased that the HQC has chosen projects which involve respiratory health care.

The LAS began working with the HQC in 2005. An asthma study resulted in identifying the prevalence of asthma in Saskatchewan, key quality indicators and recommendations for improved asthma care.

Most recently, the Lung Association has worked as one of the HQC’s partners in developing and implementing a Collaborative project with a goal to improve the quality of care for people living with COPD. We would like to make special mention of Erin Walling, Quality Improvement Consultant who has worked tirelessly on this project. She has been instrumental in promoting the Lung Association resources including SpiroTrec, a teaching program for individuals working in physician offices.

Thank you for your interest, leadership and efforts in promoting improved respiratory care in our province!
 

Award of Merit

Vicki Kennedy

Vicki Kennedy accepts the Lung Association of Saskatchewan Award of Merit.

 

The Lung Association has many opportunities to work with a number of very talented and knowledgeable health care professionals in the Saskatoon Health Region. One such exceptional nurse is Vicki Kennedy. Vicki’s attention to detail in providing respiratory education to her patients is exemplary. She is an empathetic, caring COPD nurse clinician whose patients both respect her invaluable tidbits of information on how to self-manage their chronic lung condition, and also enjoy her New Zealand accent and sense of humor. Vicki most notably has been a major contributor to the COPD Toolkit, a compilation of resources for health care professionals that has recently been offered worldwide. Congratulations on achieving the Lung Association’s Award of Merit.

 

Award of Merit

Audrey McLelland

Audrey McLelland accepts the Lung Association of Saskatchewan Award of Merit.

The Lung Association relies on the knowledge and expertise of individuals in the health community to act as resource persons for many education initiatives. Audrey’s excellent presentation skills have been an invaluable asset to the Lung Association. She is a pharmacist and Certified Respiratory Educator in Saskatoon. Her contributions as an educator and facilitator have benefited all those who have had contact with her through the Lung Association and through her practise. She is a dedicated learner and takes every opportunity to attend continuing professional education events. Audrey was President of the Saskatchewan Thoracic Society in 2008-2009. She also serves as a community liaison working with the Health Quality Council collaborative. Audrey contributes greatly to her profession, her community and the Lung Association. Congratulations, Audrey, on this Award of Merit.

Award of Merit

SaskTel TelCare

Mindy Marciniuk accepts the Lung Association of Saskatchewan Award of Merit on behalf of SaskTel TelCare.

We are pleased to present The Lung Association’s Award of Merit to the Saskatoon and District SaskTel TelCare Chapter for their tremendous efforts to promote lung health in Saskatchewan. Since 1939 as the SaskTel Telephone Employees Benevolent Fund to present day through SaskTel TelCare, SaskTel current and former employees have been instrumental in making our communities a better place to live.

For every dollar donated by SaskTel employees, SaskTel contributes fifty cents. The charitable donations generated as a result of this matching program provides financial assistance to many non profit organizations, including The Lung Association. In recent years the Saskatoon and District SaskTel TelCare Chapter have provided funding for COPD awareness, training health care providers in the Saskatoon community to conduct quality spirometry, and tobacco cessation.

In addition, SaskTel employees give generously of their volunteer time to enrich the lives of Saskatchewan people and they annually support The Lung Association’s Breath of Spring Tulip Campaign.

Thank you for the ongoing support that SaskTel TelCare provides to the Lung Association so that the residents of Saskatchewan can breathe a little easier! Please accept this Award of Merit with our gratitude.

Award of Merit

zu

Katherine Regnier accepts the Lung Association of Saskatchewan Award of Merit on behalf of zu.

It was almost exactly a year ago that two events occurred. Tanya Lung, our IT Manager went on maternity leave, and we were successful in getting funding for the COPD Toolkit website. This meant we needed IT help and that is where a dynamic and community-minded IT firm in Saskatoon called zu.com entered the picture.

Fortunately, we already knew some of the people at zu because we had worked with some of their employees before in other capacities. They understood our needs and made a great proposal for a top-notch, leading edge website for the COPD Toolkit. There was, however, one problem. The project would cost $40,000 and our funding was $20,000.

This was where the wonderful people at zu made a big difference. They contributed the other $20,000 to the project.

Thanks to zu we now have the leading website for developing COPD chronic disease management programs. It has already been used by 60 different centres across Canada to deliver COPD programs to hundreds of people.

We are very pleased to present this award with our thanks to Katherine Regnier, Director of Marketing at zu.

Life Membership

Beverly Engele, Surrey BC

Beverly Engele accepts her Life Membership with the Lung Association of Saskatchewan.

Beverly started work with the Lung Association in December 1988 and retired in June, 2008 after almost 20 years of service.

Beverly’s area was first and foremost finance. She is very adept and precise and takes great pride in making sure that she can account for every penny. She also ensured that people who weren’t accounts could understand our financial statements. She was consistently complemented on the high quality of her work by our Finance Committee and by our auditors.

Beverly was also responsible for operations. She managed our human resources services, our general office requirements and all the day-to-day needs that kept our organisation operational. She also ensured that we meet all the Federal and provincial requirements that health charities are required to meet.

Beverly was always wiling and able to take on extra tasks when the need arose. She directed the development department for many years. She was always there for the Lung Association and always went that extra mile.
Beverly was a key part of the planning process, estimating costs for the many activities each year so that an accurate budget could be developed.

When we think about all the people that the Lung Association helped over the 20 years that Beverly was here, almost none of them ever met Beverly personally or even realised that the services which they received wouldn’t have been possible unless we had sufficient and efficient organisational support available. Yet they should be grateful to Beverly because her contribution to our mission of improving lung health was a very necessary part of being able to do what we do.

The Lung Association is very much a product of the staff and volunteers who commit their time and their careers to improving lung health. The nature and character of the Lung Association as it exists today has been shaped in no small way by Beverly and no doubt many of the changes, practises and policies that she introduced will continue to be with us for many years to come.

Beverly, in recognition and gratitude for all that you have done for us, we wish to confer the award of life membership in the Lung Association of Saskatchewan.

Life Membership

Paul Van Loon, Saskatoon

Paul Van Loon accepts his Life Membership with the Lung Association of Saskatchewan.

Paul grew up in southern Ontario and after obtaining a Master’s degree in physiology, he was lured to Saskatchewan with a teaching job in Sandy Bay. He spent a fair time in northern Saskatchewan and was the school principle at Rabbit Lake before moving to Saskatoon.

Paul began working for the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League in April 1982. He retired from the Lung Association of Saskatchewan in December 2009 after almost 28 years of service.

Paul’s first position was head of the mobile lung health surveillance unit that was responsible for conducting lung function tests and x-rays of all grain handlers in the province. After spending three years travelling to every town in Saskatchewan, Paul became the Director of Health Education and was responsible for tobacco issues as well as school programs and information for the general public.

Paul quickly became an authority on tobacco. He studied everything about tobacco from the history of tobacco use to the physiology of nicotine addiction to the psychology of tobacco marketing. His is without doubt the most knowledgeable person in Saskatchewan in regard to tobacco.

Paul has attended hundreds of meetings on tobacco reduction and has spoken to city and town councils, governments and health authorities to advocate for smoke-free policies, bylaws and legislation.

Paul was still a teacher and visited classrooms around the province to talk to students about lung health. He developed many teaching aids and resources. We now have many of these on the internet and we frequently get comments from teachers around the world thanking us for providing them and saying that these are the best resources available.

Paul was always a company man. He worked far in excess of the nominal hours of his job and usually spent some of his vacation time in the office. Although all of us in the Lung Association tend to be frugal, Paul carried it one step further. When he attends conferences and meetings in other cities he will stay at hostels rather than pay the high price of a conference hotel. For many years it was a point of honour that he never paid more than $20 for a room.

Paul, in recognition and gratitude for all that you have done for us, we wish to confer the award of life membership in the Lung Association of Saskatchewan.