ESTEVAN - Two Estevan Police Service constables and two Estevan RCMP constables recently were announced as the recipients of the Van De Vorst Family Award for their work in getting impaired drivers off the road.
While four local law enforcement members were recognized for their work, Connie Hagel, the community leader of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Estevan chapter, said that so far she was able to hand out only two awards. One went to Estevan Police Service Const. Michelle Beaulieu and another to Estevan RCMP Const. Adrian Bole for their contribution to the battle against impaired driving.
The award is presented to officers who arrest a certain number of impaired drivers in a year. Hagel said that the applications start at eight convictions a year.
"We want to award the police officers as well because they're the ones that are getting the impaired drivers off the road. So this is just the award to honour them," Hagel said.
Beaulieu had nine convicted impaired drivers in a year and received a silver award. Bole had 22 convicted cases of impaired driving in a year, which got him a golden award.
Const. Landon Polk with EPS was another recipient of the award this year with 16 convicted impaired drivers. Const. Tyler Baird with Estevan RCMP was also recognized for his hard work. Baird caught eight impaired drivers. Hagel added that Baird has moved out of Estevan, and Polk wasn't available at the time of the presentation. They will receive their awards later.
Hagel added that there are more officers to be awarded in Weyburn, Carlyle and Carnduff areas that she has to do as well, which adds up to a very large number of convicted impaired drivers all caught in one year.
"There's a lot of impaired drivers out there. Kudos to the officers that are getting them off the road. So I guess we still need to hit home that impaired driving is still a problem, and you can tell by how many awards I'm handing out. It is good that I'm handing out the awards, but it's kind of bad because I'm handing out awards," Hagel said.
The nominations for the award come from the police stations and detachments, and MADD just presents the awards to deserving nominees.
"The awards are done through nominations and somebody from their detachment could have nominated them or somebody within the group that they are involved in, like somebody from the RCMP nominated them. And same with city police, somebody from their detachment nominated them. So that's how they get the award," Hagel explained.
The recognition is named after the Van De Vorsts, a family of four killed by an impaired driver in a collision near Saskatoon in 2016. Members of the family created the award to salute officers.
This is the third year Estevan's MADD hands the Van De Vorsts Family Award, and 2021 marked the highest number of recipients in the area.
"If I'm handing out as many awards, it (impaired driving) is still a problem," Hagel said.
