Page 2 - Brandon Sun - 2018 Community Leader Awards

2 • COMMUNITY LEADER AWARDS 2018 THE BRANDON SUN • THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2018

» COMMUNITY LEADER OF THE YEAR, SPONSORED BY BDO

Luhowy an ‘unsung hero of her community’

BY MATT GOERZEN
Tireless. Selfless. Dedicated.
These are, perhaps, the most apt descriptions of
Shoal Lake resident and longtime Westman-area
volunteer Cory Luhowy.
Dubbed by those who nominated her as an
“unsung hero of her community,” Luhowy has
played a part in nearly every event and been a
member of nearly every committee that can be
found in Shoal Lake for the past eight years. And
her time spent as a community volunteer is much
longer if you count her previous 18 years living in
nearby Minnedosa.
And she does it all with a positive attitude — a
self-styled “git ‘er done” work ethic — and lists,
oh so many lists.
“Lists are fantastic,” Luhowy said with a laugh.
“They keep you organized and you make sure you
are where you’re supposed to be on a certain day
and have a certain thing done by a certain time.”
The list of organizations and causes Luhowy has
given her time to over the past decades is daunting.
She has helped organize fall and spring suppers,
done catechism teaching and church cleaning.
From her time on various committees and
boards, she has worn many hats, from bookkeeper,
hockey and baseball team manager, to trustee,
canteen manager, fish fry organizer, and even
ensuring Canada Day celebrations got off the
ground.
She is the current treasurer of the Shoal Lake
Chamber of Commerce and the Shoal Lake
Agricultural Society, and the secretary of the Shoal
Lake Curling club. Luhowy volunteers time in the
Shoal Lake Communiplex kitchen, is part of the
St. Helen’s Parish Council, and does makeup and
ticket sales for the Strathclair Drama Club.
She credits her father for her volunteer spirit —
he was her role model for how to care about and
give time to her community.
“He was a saint,” she said. “He took the bull by
the horns and got things done. You have to make
a plan and you stick to it.”
If there is something to be done, the community
is pretty much guaranteed Luhowy will be involved.
She knows how to get a group organized to take
on a task, lays out her expectations and lets people
do their jobs under her guidance.
“She’s just on so many committees,” said Sheri
Baydak, a volunteer with the Shoal Lake
Agricultural Society and one of the people who
put Luhowy’s name forward for the award.
“It’s not too often you get someone on just about
everything in the community. And she gets nothing
to do it. She works her little butt off. She’s basically
one of the first to step up. If it wasn’t for her
knowledge and commitment and help — she’s
really got the brains for all the financial part of it.”
With all of these volunteer commitments,
Luhowy still manages to work full time with the
Strathclair Credit Union branch in Shoal Lake. In
fact, she says being employed close to home gives
her the ability to take on many volunteer roles in
the community, and get so much done.
“I’m very fortunate to be able to work at home
(in Shoal Lake) and I think that’s what makes my
accessibility so easy too, that people can just stop
in,” Luhowy said. “‘I hear you’re collecting for this
or do you need my name for this.’ Yup, very
accessible.”
But even a long-serving volunteer like Luhowy,
who admits her volunteer efforts seem to fall into
an annual pattern, can find new challenges. Last
October, Luhowy took on a new role as a member
of the Shoal Lake Community Foundation, a
charity organization that provides financial support
to local initiatives.
Established in 2013, the Shoal Lake Community
Foundation’s mission is described on its website as
to “continuously support and enhance the lives of
the residents of Shoal Lake and Oakburn through
grants that inspire community leadership.”
The Shoal Lake Community Foundation is part
of a wider network of community foundations that
originated with the creation of The Winnipeg
Foundation in 1921.
As per the Endow Manitoba website, every gift
made to an endowment fund at a community
foundation is pooled and permanently invested.
The interest earned on these funds is then
distributed as grants to support a variety of local
charitable projects. The capital is never spent,
ensuring a lasting source of support for a
community.
While she’s still learning the ropes on the
foundation — “I’m still pretty green,” she said —
Luhowy says she has found this new challenge
interesting, and she seems excited to be part of
something big and lasting.
“It’s like leaving a legacy for your community to
raise funds to turn back into the community,”
Luhowy said. “It’s something very new for me, Shoal Lake resident Cory Luhowy has been named this year’s Community Leader of the Year. (Submitted)
and something I’ve never been a part of before.
And I have a lot to learn.”
Nevertheless, her community obviously values
all the time and effort she has put back into the
region. Like Baydak said, volunteers are the “
lifeblood of any small community, and Luhowy is
a testament to that fact. “It’s not too often you get someone on just about everything in the community. And she gets nothing to do it.
“If we didn’t have our volunteers who are willing She works her little butt off. She’s basically one of the first to step up.
to help, we wouldn’t have anything,” Baydak said.
» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com — Sheri Baydak
» Twitter: @MattGoerzen