Glen Fafard, President of the Yorkton Harvest Midget 'AAA' hockey club and an employee of DuPont Canada was recently recognized by his employers at DuPont for his outstanding volunteer work with the Harvest hockey club.
On Thursday, March 20 at the Gallagher Centre Fafard and the Harvest were awarded $1000.00 U.S. from DuPont Canada's Volunteer Recognition Award Program for the work he has done for the Harvest over the years.
The cheque, which was handed out by Frédéric Beudot, the Business Director for DuPont Crop Protection Canada, was one of just 291 handed out throughout the world. Fafard is also the lone Canadian to be issued the award; something that he still struggles to believe. "That's a little bit surreal for me so far," said a very proud Fafard. "It feels special to be awarded this and it's kind of overwhelming but very appreciated."
Fafard, a former member of the team from the 1980s when it was known as the Yorkton Mallers, is finishing up his first year as President of the team after accepting the position following years of hard work as Vice-President of the Harvest.
But while the award was specifically to recognize the hard work that Fafard has put forth throughout the years to make the Harvest run smoother, Fafard himself refused to take all of the credit. Instead, the Harvest President gave credit to two other people, Garth Simms and Kylie Bielka, for the work that they do with the club. "The organization has a lot of people who help and Kylie Bielka and Garth Simms are truly the workload behind the figurehead that I get to be," offered Fafard. "Without them I don't know where the Harvest would be now."
But how did Fafard's name enter the conversation when it came to issuing these awards?
The aforementioned Beudot said that it was through the suggestion of Fafard's colleagues at work. "We run a process annually where co-workers nominate people on their team when they see something really special that they are doing on behalf of their communities," said Beudot, a native of Paris, France. "These nominations roll all the way up to our headquarters in the US and get reviewed and selected by a committee that picks a number of winners from around the world based on their achievements and they selected Glen for Canada this year."
However DuPont received some recognition of their own in the form of a thank you from Yorkton Harvest acting General Manager Garth Simms on Thursday as Simms wanted to thank the company for what they've done for Fafard and for the club (the Harvest are the recipient of the award). "It's really heartwarming to see a large corporation like Dupont recognize their employees for doing what is absolutely essential for us to survive," offered Simms. "We thank Dupont for their contribution and we thank, wholeheartedly, everything that Glen does for this club."
Fafard is the lone recipient of the award in Canada and is one of just 291 people to be issued the award out of the 60-thousand plus worldwide DuPont workforce.
