“As you grow older,” the late Audrey Hepburn once said, “you will discover that you have two hands – one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
Mary Wright wouldn’t argue with that observation. Her sense of duty to community is so strong that she is about to be honoured with Saskatchewan’s highest honour for volunteers.
“I was very surprised,” says Wright, a Denare Beach resident, when asked about her reaction to winning the Saskatchewan Volunteer Medal.
Wright has compiled a lengthy volunteer resume during her 23 years in Denare Beach.
She assists the local youth drop-in program and community celebrations, and is a board member with the Denare Beach Recreation Board, Northern Neighbours Community Foundation and New Horizons Seniors.
Wright also helps organize events for seniors, mentors summer students and is a volunteer community arborist.
And that’s just a sampling.
“I just find it very satisfying and to be involved in the community, but it also gives you social contact,” says Wright, who also finds time to write a gardening column for The Reminder.
Originally from Germany, Wright moved to Canada with her family when she was nine years old. Her stepfather, a Pole, was a displaced person in Germany after the Second World War.
She spoke no English when she arrived in Canada, but in time she became fluent.
After spending her formative years in Winnipeg, Wright became a medical lab tech and worked in Leaf Rapids for 18 years before moving to Denare Beach in the mid-1990s.
This isn’t the first time Wright has been recognized for her volunteer work, as she previously received a community volunteer award from the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce.
Wright is scheduled to be in Regina on Monday, April 24 to accept her medal from Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield. She is one of 10 recipients of the medal this year.
