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Community Leader: Barb Hoy

Barb Hoy received honourable mention for the Community Leader Awards in the volunteer category.
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Barb Hoy.

To be nominated for a Community Leader award was something that Barb Hoy was reluctant to accept at first.

"I know our community is full of outstanding volunteers.  I don't know that what I do is particularly unique or exceptional, there are so many people who do so much more than I do, " Hoy says.

But after giving it some thought for a few days, she relented because if her acknowledgement draws awareness to two things she is passionate about, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, then she thought it was worthwhile to put herself in the spotlight for a moment.

"I like to work quietly in the background. I don't do what I do for personal gain which is true of so many volunteers in our community," Barb says. "I was absolutely dumbfounded when I got the call about the (Community Leader) award."

Barb has been a tremendous asset to the Kelowna branch of the CMHA for the past two years, exercising her passion, reliability and belief in how this organization is helping make our community a better place to live.

She has worked on various committees and helped at public events as a great local ambassador for the mental health care cause.

In her efforts to support the breast cancer foundation, Hoy has been run director of the CIBC Run For The Cure for four years (2010 to 2013), logging more than 1,500 hours and contributing to the coordination of 7,000 participants during that time.

She has been a community ambassador for breast cancer awareness since 2014, and has been named a Local Hero by the foundation for her volunteer efforts.

As well, Barb has been a volunteer for the Kelowna Community Theatre since 2014, providing help as a ticket taker, usher and concession sales, contributing more than 260 hours to date.

A retired pharmacist, Barb sums up her volunteer spirit this way: "I love volunteering and  have done so for most of my life. I am so grateful to live in and to have raised my children in this wonderful community that I consider it a privilege to help in the small ways that I do."

 



Barry Gerding

About the Author: Barry Gerding

Senior regional reporter for Black Press Media in the Okanagan. I have been a journalist in the B.C. community newspaper field for 37 years...
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