Volunteer Recognition Awards

2021 Volunteer Stories

The City is invited the community to submit stories and photos showcasing the people, businesses or groups that have provided unpaid help or support to others in Port Coquitlam over the past year.

The submitted stories and images will be shared with the community as a way to build community spirit. 20 entries will be randomly selected to win $100 gift cards – sponsored by Fortis BC – to the Port Coquitlam business of their choice. The campaign, entitled Volunteers Help Get Us Through, is a reformatting of the annual Port Coquitlam Volunteer Recognition Awards event held each spring given large gatherings are not permitted at this time.

The volunteers highlighted in each story will be presented with a commemorative pin and a city branded mask.

Nathan Twa

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

From May 2020- March 2021 I coordinated a United Way Food Hub for Westcoast Family Centre in tri cities. We provided food hampers, prepared meals, ready to cook meals and backpack buddies to any tri city families facing food insecurity due to the pandemic. We had an...

Janice Kim

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

There are many ways that Janice Kim could have spent her last summer vacation heading into Grade 12 at Riverside Secondary, but she chose to spend it bringing smiles to children’s faces. Janice was one of a small group of volunteers who was invited back to...

Port Coquitlam Minor Hockey team U11C2

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Without games this season, they focused their attention on raising awareness for the Share Community and Families. Through collecting recycling beverage containers, donations and drive thru food collections, they collected over $680 and 2400lbs over non-perishable...

Thomasina Jorgenson

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Thomasina Jorgenson has been a valuable team player at the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station. Even though she is a mom, works, and volunteers regularly with the Mary Hill Office to make sure that unique problem solving resolutions are explored, community safety...

Darwin Wang

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Darwin Weng is a hard working volunteer who has been with the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station for over 2 years! The pandemic allowed him to bond more with his team and win the 2020 award for punniest and local artist award for his removal of graffiti. He...

Talia Goldstein

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Talia started her volunteer journey at the beginning of COVID. She was going to school and working but wanted to make a difference by reducing distracted drivers in the community of Port Coquitlam. She was dedicated and went out during early morning hours during the...

Benjamin Sawa

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Benjamin was a COVID hire with the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station. He really took on the role on top of working and going to school. He found it very important to reduce distracted drivers and provide the public with crime prevention information. He even took...

Manuela Noel

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Manuela has been volunteering with the Community Police Station in Port Coquitlam for 7 years – during the Pandemic though she was the first to provide information and input about safety measures for the volunteers. She was also one of the first to keep the...

Chirath Attanayake

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Abbie was hired just before COVID and had to postpone her training at the Port Coquitlam Community Police Office. She was working and going to school which had it’s own challenges throughout the Pandemic but she also really wanted to make a difference for the...

Ryan Taheri Anaraki

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Ryan was a hired to volunteer with the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station at the beginning of the pandemic – but this didn’t stop him from being involved. As soon as protocols were in place he was at the office training, learning and giving his time...

Nash Devin

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Nash works with the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station and makes a difference by keeping our local community police station open. Without his dedication during COVID we may not have been able to keep the office open to the public on a regular basis. He is great a...

Arshia Moradhaseli

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Arshia was a COVID hire at the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station in 2020 and only started volunteering in Sept of 2020. He was eager to learn and kept the safety of the public, his fellow volunteers, and staff in mind. He has completed 55 hours of foot patrol,...

Ingrid Frankze

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Ingrid was a COVID hire for the community police station. Throughout this she has kept the office open on Mary Hill Road to the public at least once a week and sometimes two! Usually this was during the a highly desired need from the public – sometimes...

Darpan Malhi

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Darpan played a vital role for our volunteers. Sometimes this role was being a leader and keeping them safe and other times it was being their base (a safety check in). All of this time and effort, although sometimes in the lime light and sometimes as a safety net,...

Graeme Niedtner

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

COVID has driven internal review when it comes to processing information and documentation. Graeme has been influential and instrumental when discovering, organizing, analyzing, and standardizing the information lifecycle at the Community Police Station. His attention...

Jaxon LeDuc

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Summer 2020 – Moresports BC, Game Ready Fitness & Westcoast Family Centre teamed up for a summer camp at a PoCo School to help some families during the pandemic. These families who could not have respite support for their kids or needed day camp support, so...

Trenton Heinrich-Duddy

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Bob Wallace

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Bob Wallace is the President of Art Focus Artists’ Association. During this pandemic, Bob carries the Club through with our Zoom monthly meetings while other art groups just stopped meeting. He stepped up and took over the positions vacated by two of our members...

Insiyah Dharsee

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Insiyah is very passionate about her community. Since the age of 8 she has volunteered with her church, with seniors, fundraising, and most recently, adopting her neighborhood to help keep in clean, safe and beautiful for the whole community as part of the...

Royce Shook

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

As the President of the Wilson Advisory Board, Royce has worked hard to support seniors in Port Coquitlam by advocating and assisting with the development of seniors programs and services in partnership with the City. In 2020 alone, Royce was successful in numerous...

Ian Follis

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Having been an active and important member on the Wilson Seniors Advisory Board for many years, Ian has worked hard to support and enhance the lives of seniors in his community. As a member of City of Port Coquitlam’s Seniors Phone Buddies program, Ian has been...

Dennis & Iris Sorita

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Dennis and Iris have been the key, lead volunteers who helped City Reach Care Society increase capacity at their Port Coquitlam food bank location by 500% in order to respond to the needs during the pandemic. They serve with City Reach Care Society every week,...

Linda Dore

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Linda has been a lifelong volunteer. Within the City of Port Coquitlam, she volunteers with Community Policing, the Hyde Creek Watershed Society, BlockWatch, Emergency Social Services, plus several other volunteer opportunities where and when she felt she could...

Roger Dore

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Roger is a longtime resident of Port Coquitlam and has been a member of Community Policing for a few years now. He has mainly volunteered with Foot Patrols and Graffiti recording and clean-ups on the teams I lead. I believe that Roger deserves to be acknowledged for...

Teresa Dempsey

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Teresa is a longtime resident of Port Coquitlam and has been a dedicated member of Community Policing for many years, volunteering for several of their initiatives and definitely worthy of receiving this award! One of those initiatives is Foot Patrol. We are the eyes...

Julie Knisley

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Soroptimist International of the Tri Cities was charted in 1999 and has grown to over 40 women locally, who offer their time and skills to make a difference in the lives of women and girls, both within our nearby communities, as well as...

Pooja Patel

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

In this pandemic conditions, when people needs people support. Me and my all friends did few activities for community. 1) we did free food drive for each and every people near to all sky train station. 2) we did make a food for homeless people and serve them every...

Danay Robinson

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

There’s been a lot of trash around Port Coquitlam over the past year. I think people don’t want to touch the garbage bins so they leave trash around on the ground instead. I wanted to help clean up our city by collecting trash in parks and on sidewalks...

Brittany Hill

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

It was a windy day and also happened to be recycling day. Someone’s bin on our adopt-a-spot route had split. There were hundreds of pieces shredded papers, wrappers, containers etc. blowing all over the place. My 3 year old and I both had our tongs and piece by piece...

Richard Aruliah

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Richard in 2019 and 2020 volunteered for ESS, Wilson Centre’s Kitchen, and St. Catherine’s church food soup kitchen in Port Coquitlam. He has also been a member of the ESS for nearly 20 years. (supporting doc’s in web...

Vishad Deeplaul

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Vishad is a family man, volunteer and people connector. He moved here from South Africa a few years ago and I am so glad that he decided to make our community his home. He is an energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated person that our community needs. When you meet him,...

Ayden Kuiper

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Ayden is a humble person who would never admit the amount of good he is doing for the community. Ayden is new to our program but took on the role of Cell Watch leader during the pandemic. This involved taking care of his co-volunteers and community. Generally cell...

Megan Kohler

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Megan Kohler has been a volunteer with our Community Policing program for almost 10 years now. She was the first to step up during the pandemic to be a team leader for our cell watch program. Cell watch is a program that volunteers sign up for to deter and raise the...

Ethan Jang

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Ethan is a hard working student who stepped up to be a team leader for our foot patrols with the Port Coquitlam Community Police Station during the Pandemic. He assisted created best practices for procedures and safety measures that would keep himself, the community,...

Brissa Mendez Guitierrez

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Brissa was one of the first volunteers to step up to lead foot patrols with the local Port Coquitlam Community Police Station during the pandemic. This involved taking extra safety precautions, ensuring her fellow core group of volunteers were safe, and being extra...

Ashiana Sunderji

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Inspired by the Social Diversity for Children Foundation, Ashiana reached out to the Leisure Buddies team at the City of Port Coquitlam to put together a virtual pen pal program. As a leisure buddy for the city and best buddy at her high school, she understood the...

Mary & Brian Ness

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Mary and Bryan Ness dedicated long-time volunteers in the city of Port Coquitlam. Every morning for the past few years Mary walks from her house to Blakeburn Lagoons picking up garbage and cigarette butts on her way to and around the lagoons. Mary and Bryan are proud...

Nicole Blades

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Nicole Blades is one of those truly “amazing” women who selflessly gives to the community at large. She is currently working for West Coast Family Centre, and is doing volunteer work, delivering food hampers to people in need. She had only one person on a...

Crystal Patrick

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Crystal has been volunteering with City Reach Care Society for the last couple of years. She provides overall leadership to all of our meal programs. Just as COVID was starting, she helped develop a plan to partner with other groups to serve meals 7 days a week, to...

Alexander Jung

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Alex J has been the most dedicated base for our patrol and cell watch program. This involves being there to open and close the office and check in on the team to make sure they are okay on their patrol or need anything. He had to respond to a first aid situation and...

Abbie Frost

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Minda Movold

by Ximena Ibacache | April 21, 2021 | Volunteer Stories | 0 Comments

Minda has been volunteering with City Reach Care Society for several years, but she has really stepped up during COVID. Every week at our Port Coquitlam location, she leads a team that prepares bagged meals for those experiencing homelessness in the TriCities. She...

Thank You to Our Sponsor

The City’s 2021 volunteer recognition efforts will again be sponsored by Fortis BC, which supported Port Coquitlam’s awards for 22 consecutive years.

Did you know?

In October 2015, FortisBC launched the Rental Apartment Efficiency Program for owners and managers of rental apartment buildings that are nine units and larger. The no-cost services that are provided through the program include:

A water-efficient shower head and a kitchen and bathroom faucet aerator directly installed in each unit
A building energy assessment to identify energy-efficiency improvements and upgrades
Ongoing professional assistance from a rental apartment energy management expert to guide owners/managers through the process of making a wide range of energy upgrades.

Contact

Communications
Tel 604.927.5411
Email communications@portcoquitlam.ca

Location and Mailing Address

3rd Floor, City Hall
2580 Shaughnessy Street
Port Coquitlam, BC
V3C 2A8

8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday (excluding statutory holidays)