Cathy Richardson is 2017 Citizen of the Year

Sponsored by the Battlefords News-Optimist, Discovery Co-op and the North Battleford Lions Club, the 2017 Citizen of the Year and Junior Citizen of the Year award winner are now officially announced. Honoured this year are Cathy Richardson, Citizen of the Year, and Emily Simon, Junior Citizen of the Year.

It comes as no surprise to people familiar with her efforts in the community that Cathy Richardson has been named 2017 Citizen of the Year.

But like the many others who have received that honour before her in the past 50 years, Richardson was surprised when she received the phone call from Glen Gantefoer confirming she was this year’s honouree.

“I’m humbled and awed. It’s not often that ‘chatty Cathy’ is speechless,” said Richardson, who admits the news set her back a bit when she got the word.

Although she was born and raised in Swift Current and later lived in Regina, Richardson’s family has deep roots in the Battlefords, where her great-grandparents had settled in 1903. Richardson said it was through her own parents that she learned about the importance of giving back to the community.

“They raised all of my siblings and I with a duty, a responsibility to service, to try and make the world a better place, and love your neighbour and do for your neighbour.” 

With the exception of one year when her family lived in New Zealand, Richardson has called North Battleford her home since 1984. She moved here with her husband Ken, a podiatrist, and has worked as a speech pathologist with the health region and then with Living Sky School Division.

It did not take long for Richardson to follow in her own family’s example by volunteering and giving back.

Among the activities Richardson has been involved with has been the Bready Home and School Association, where she was president for several years; and the Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival, which also included taking on the president’s role.

Many of her early volunteer efforts, such as the Bready association and the music festival, were in connection to activities her two children, Karen and Mark, were involved in. Both of them are now very active in the community as adults.

She has also been a volunteer with the Dekker Centre and 100 Women Who Care, among many. She is also a 20-year volunteer with Western Development Museum.

Richardson has been a dedicated board member, fundraiser and member of the choir at Third Avenue United Church. It was that association that eventually led to her involvement with the  Battlefords Trade and Education Centre on the fundraising committee for their new building.

She personally raised $25,000 towards a music room named in honour of Kenny Perkin, an individual with Down’s syndrome who Richardson had come to know through her church and choir activities there.

In 2012 Richardson ran and was elected to city council, which she called an “eye-opening” experience.

“It really opens your eyes to lots of things,” said Richardson. “You don’t know all the things that go on to keep the city running.”   

During her four years on council Richardson was known for her excellent attendance record as well as her willingness to take on any assignment. One of those was an appointment as the city council rep to the board of what is now the Battlefords chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

She kept up her involvement after leaving council, devoting a good chunk of her time in July and August 2017 to helping complete their home project in the city.

“I spent most of my summer involved doing lots of stuff” to get that Habitat home built, said Richardson. Two families now live in that duplex that was completed this year.

Richardson also got involved with the Walking with Our Sisters project – the commemorative art installation at Chapel Gallery for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Canada and the USA.

Most recently, Richardson has been involved in the volunteer efforts for the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games. She is co-chair of the Ceremonies and Protocol Committee.

Those efforts are going to keep Richardson busy over the coming couple of months.

Richardson points to the people she has been around as a volunteer and believes they are deserving of credit. She says everything she has been involved in has been about “the team” more than any one individual.

“I meet people every day who I think are as deserving or more deserving than I am for that role, people who inspire me,” said Richardson.

“In everything that I do, there are people who are so deserving who I admire and aspire to be more like.”

As for what motivates her to be involved as a good citizen of the community, Richardson points to “family and faith” as being her two biggest.

Richardson also points to the values that were instilled in her growing up. She recalls a quote from her dad who said “people know what they do, they know why they do what they do, but what they don’t know is what they do does.”

“I think about that a lot in respect of lots of different things,” said Richardson. “It’s important to me to remember that when I do something I don’t really know how that’s affecting someone else. One little word of kindness or some little act can mean a lot to someone.”

The other saying Richardson points to is an Edward Everett Hale quote: “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

That was something else Richardson said her dad had instilled in her.

“You’re only one person, but it only takes one – and it takes one and it brings in ten more.”