Sherwood Park resident Ken Lesniak has won the Community Service Award for this year's Strathcona County Awards of Excellence.
Lesniak has lived in Sherwood Park for 46 years and is now retired but has a lengthy list of accomplishments he continues to add to.
“I am very humbled to be receiving [the award]. There are a lot of people in Strathcona County and in the communities that do lots of community service. I am honoured to get it so, I have mixed feelings over it in that regard,” said Lesniak.
Some of his work includes:
- Being the director of lifelong learning for the Edmonton Catholic School Board which then led him to be the chair of the Elk Island Catholic School Board for 14 years.
- Running for municipal politics and being a county councilor for two terms.
- Chairing the board for Belvedere Golf and Country Club for six years.
- He chaired the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee for mayor and council for three years.
- Working on the Festival Place Board and Robin Hood Association Board.
- Chairing the St. Sophia's Parish Board.
- Chair of the Municipal Government Board for the province of Alberta.
This list of involvement is just a portion of the work Lesniak has done to make him a recipient of the award.
Currently, he is working as a chair for the Strathcona Community Hospital Foundation.
“I need to be involved. I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from helping people and working with people. It is part of what makes me tick,” added Lesniak.
The work he is involved in with the Strathcona County Hospital Foundation includes trying to raise funds to support the hospital, aid in buying equipment and providing opportunities for staff training.
“It is really exciting work. Our community, our council and our citizens in Strathcona County have come together to support this hospital in a huge, huge way.”
He was at home when he got the call from the county administration telling him that he had won the award.
“Although I am the recipient of this award, the real recipients are all the people that work on the committees that I work with.”
Lesniak is one of two recipients of this award -- he will be attending the ceremony on June 13 to accept his accomplishment in person.
The award ceremony is at Festival Place and free to attend. The doors open at 6:30 p.m.