Donalda Ledene: A community’s gem

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

When Donalda Ledene took to the stage during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2015 Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games, the crowd in the stands erupted with thunderous cheers and applause, trumpeting approval for the local volunteer that far exceeded the acknowledgement given to other individuals around. The recognition, it turns out, was a direct reflection of 31 years of commitment and dedication to the community, its events, and youths – efforts that were recently rewarded with the 2015 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Awards certificate of recognition.
Raised in Vulcan, Ledene was strongly influenced by her parents and grandparents, and therefore began volunteering at an early age. What started out as group projects through the United Church quickly turned into leading youth camps, getting involved with explorer groups, and later instituting the Leo’s club at the Strathmore High School; a junior Lions Club.
“I think because my parents and my grandparents were volunteers I grew up in a world where you participated in your community,” Ledene said. “I had always lived in a small rural community and it’s the kind of place where it’s always someone needing help or projects needing people to do things. My model was that you get involved and you participate and it’s just been a natural follow through.”
Ledene studied education with a major in home economics at the University of Alberta, but it wasn’t until she moved to Brooks that she met her husband. The family – now with two children – relocated to Strathmore in 1984, where the couple purchased a drycleaner and coin laundry business. But Ledene soon received a job offer teaching at the high school where she remained teaching home economics, accounting and acting as a guidance counsellor, until her retirement in 2009. While she spent her time getting involved in school projects and activities and volunteering her time with some of Strathmore’s service groups, Ledene, who referred to herself as having always been a mother hen, always actively tried to get the youths involved.
“To work with the young people is to try and be a role model for them and that volunteering is something for them to consider in their future lives,” she said. “These things die if people don’t encourage other people to continue doing it. The initial background behind starting the Leo Club was to give high school students a group to be a part of and be volunteers.”
Then, a year after her husband competed at the Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games hosted in Fairview, Ledene answered a notice posted by the town to serve on a bid committee for a chance to host the games in 2015. Eager to take on a new project, Ledene played a contributing part in creating a successful bid, and shortly after accepted the position as chairperson of the committee – a position that exhausted countless volunteer hours over two years, required the creation of a 17-member volunteer board of directors as well as hiring paid positions, and act as a liaison between the board and the town to accomplish fundraising goals. The project, which she said was the largest one in her volunteer history, moved Councillor Bob Sobol to submit a letter to Alberta Culture and Tourism to nominate Ledene for a yearly Alberta Volunteer award. While the nomination was unsuccessful, she was awarded with a letter of recognition.
“She’s well known in our community and is a respected and loved individual,” read Councillor Bob Sobol from the letter he submitted to Alberta Culture and Tourism.
“She is quite simply my favourite volunteer of all time. She understands that being a volunteer means giving your all: commitment, dedication, expertise, and professionalism for the task at hand. It’s Donalda Ledene that is immediately thought of when the following phrase gets uttered, ‘volunteers don’t get paid not because they’re worthless but because they’re priceless.’”
Although she continues the volunteer work with her church, which never waivered while she organized the 2015 event, Ledene said she is taking a step back currently and re-evaluating what projects to take on next. Touched by the friendships and ripple effects left behind from the Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games, Ledene was awestruck by the letter of recognition.
“I was very humbled to be nominated and very honoured… and I really feel that this nomination, yes I was the one that was nominated, but I’m really just more a representative of that whole group who did a wonderful job to bring an event to the community for the first time,” she said.
“And I just thank the community for giving us this opportunity and supporting the whole project, because without their support it would not have looked the way it did. It was a good event.”