Page 18 - The Brandon Sun - 2017 Community Leader Awards

18 • COMMUNITY LEADER AWARDS THE BRANDON SUN • THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2017

» COURAGE AND BRAVERY AWARD

Kristen Hiebert plays with her
daughter Avery in the living
room of their home in
Boissevain. Hiebert and her
daughter Avery were involved
in a car accident on Highway
23 and spent a night in
freezing temperatures with
multiple injuries before
Kristen was able to get help.
She lost both her legs below
the knees due to frostbite.
Luckily her daughter was not
injured. (File)

Hiebert’s story of survival earns CLA nod

BY IAN FROESE Community Leader Award in the courage and bravery category. By next year, she hopes to return to school, pursuing a career
In speaking to Hiebert, it’s clear she doesn’t feel her actions in agriculture or perhaps auto insurance. The possibilities got
Her body hurting and fractured one blustery winter night her thinking of what could be, a position she doesn’t take for
while shivering on the banks of a ditch last year, Kristen Hiebert were all that special, though she understands others might granted.
told her four-year-old daughter they were about to die. disagree.
“I’ve had some thoughts in my mind,” she said.
Survival wasn’t an option, Hiebert figured, as they lay in a “I did what I had to do for my daughter,” she said. “I think
ditch, for hours, unknown to anyone. Her car had run off a any other parent would have done the same.” » ifroese@brandonsun.com
rural Manitoba road, which she and her daughter escaped to » Twitter: @ianfroese
shivering temperatures in the range of -20C. Months later, the incident has left an undeniable mark. It’s
difficult to look past it.
Yet Hiebert pressed forward, in a desperate bid to extend the
lives of herself and her daughter. She pulled her broken frame “It’s hard, it’s still something I deal with, but if I didn’t have
up the embankment, using only her body to shield her daughter Avery, I’d probably be in a pretty dark place,” she admits. “She
from the elements. keeps me happy and busy.”

After a dozen hours, they were rescued in the early morning A new set of challenges is a daily occurrence. Some days it
of Jan. 18 when a passerby noticed what she thought was a hurts to even wear prosthetics. On other days, the mental
hand — it was Hiebert’s, clinging to the guardrail, as she tried turmoil, from sadness to guilt, weighs heavily.
to pull herself up to attract attention.
But yet, she powers through.
In hospital, Hiebert would remain for weeks. Her legs “Every day there are new things that are presented to me as
amputated; her neck fractured. Her ribs and arms also broken. obstacles, but I mean, in time, things get easier.”
The future is looking up. Her resilient daughter is taking
But she persisted, now at home in Boissevain, where’s she kindergarten. For the summer break, Kristen plans to spruce
battled back from physical and mental struggles to give her up her lawn and set up a pool for Avery to splash around in.
daughter Avery, now five years old, the best life she can. Kristen got a dose of independence this February when she
got her driver’s license back. She travels the roads with essentially
The family’s story of survival, which captivated Westman a hand-controlled remote, acting both as an accelerator and
residents, led to the mother’s nomination for a Brandon Sun brake pedal.

Adamski was a role model to so many in Brandon

BY IAN FROESE Former principal of École secondaire Neelin High School
Michael Adamski was honoured posthumously as one of the
Michael Adamski’s nomination for a Brandon Sun builders in Brandon.
Community Leader Award for courage and bravery is
more evidence of the impact he made in his life.

“As much as you’re hurting, it makes you proud of him,”
his wife Shannan Adamski said. “I guess that’s all you
have left in the end, the mark that you’ve left behind, and
he seems to have really left an imprint with everybody;
students, teachers and parents.”

The months following Michael’s passing from brain
cancer on Mar. 11 have been difficult, Shannan admits,
but the time has made indisputable the many lives the well-
respected Brandon school principal and Wheat Kings
public address announcer has touched.

She was floored earlier this month when she was asked
to attend the Relay for Life in Brandon and saw how many
luminaries were purchased as tributes to Michael, many
from former students of his at Brandon’s high schools.
One luminary stated how Michael was the only person to
have brought the city’s three high schools together.

“It was really touching to see that,” Shannan said of the
numerous tributes. “I bought luminaries for my kids and
myself, but I wasn’t expecting to see such an outpouring.”

Adamski was nominated for a courage and bravery
award for the inspiring way he fought terminal cancer.
Buoyed by a stubborn resolve, Adamski refused to believe
an inoperable and incurable cancer would determine his
fate.

“He said he was going to be optimistic and he was going
to be the one in the million that was going to actually beat
this,” Shannan said in February. “I don’t think anyone
wants to face their own death, it’s hard to accept.”

So instead, he would speak of the vacations he wanted
to go on, his teenaged children and of returning to work.

Throughout his time at Brandon Regional Health
Centre, he heard from so many who cared. There were
lineups outside his hospital room. Hospital staff, including
many ex-students, fussed over him. Jillian DeCosse made
a video compilation of 23 testimonials from graduates
who shared their memories. The video merely “scratched
the surface” of the students positively impacted, she said
at the time.

In his final weeks, visitors had to be turned away as
Michael was no longer himself.

“It gave me something to tell him,” Shannan said. “I
kept telling him how loved he was by everyone; the outpour
was constant, the gifts and the cards never stopped.”

His nomination for a courage and bravery award is one
of many ways the community’s love for him has been
made clear.

“He did always want us to be proud of him, so I guess
this is one way of being proud of him,” Shannan said.

» ifroese@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ianfroese