Guest post by Doreen Redmond.
Coach Janet Hoyt-D’Eon, Coach Linda MacDonald and myself, Doreen, nominated Erin for a 2021 Halifax Regional Municipality Volunteer Award. When we found out that she won, we asked her to share our guest blog here.
There are so many reasons to celebrate Erin. Erin as a decorated runner, an amazing Mom, a dedicated Public Health Nurse, an inspiring Coach, an authentic friend, and the list can go on but today is about taking a closer look at Erin as volunteer. The ceremony usually held during National Volunteer Week is being postponed to the Fall, but we’ve been given permission to celebrate Erin now.
A central theme emerges when digging a bit deeper into Erin’s long list of volunteer adventures: Erin lives the inclusive mindset. It is not enough to simply include others (that’s actually easy); she acts inclusively while engaging other voices (this takes work). Being inclusive is evident in everything she does and seeps into her “paid” work as well. We see it in how she publicly acknowledges her privilege and then does something about it. She has organized speakers sessions to bring awareness of the barriers some runners experience. Scrolling through the Love Training More / Me’ Aji-ksatim Ketkwi’m website and noting the recent mission statement and logo changes are but a sliver of evidence.
Pulling some excerpts from the Nomination Form to illustrate:
As a busy Mom, Public Health Nurse and LTM Coach, Erin still found the time to give to her community as:
- High School Track & Cross-Country Coach at Prince Andrew & Citadel High School to encourage students to participate in school athletics while fostering healthy lifestyle, good sportsman, fair play and good, friendly relationships for the past 11 years,
- Influencer of Love Training More to encourage and promote participation of women of all ages and abilities in sport, women in coaching, dedicated to equity, inclusion and diversity, and giving back to the community for the past 4 years and counting,
- Guest Speaker & Online Coach Community Run Clubs for the Running Room, Aerobics First, Bluenose Marathon and more to promote, motivate and educate participants on running and training for a race for the past 15 years,
- Fundraiser as she raised $35,000 running for 17 days, 424km across the Gambia in 2011 and supporter for the ensuing 5 years for the Nova Scotia Gambia Association whose mission is to build healthy communities in the Gambia through education, health promotion initiatives (fighting HIV, malaria) and child rights and empowerment work.
We were asked to describe a time when she demonstrated leadership:
- Erin sees Cross Country and Track as a sport that reaches out to youth who don’t have many opportunities to engage, in particular BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour), LGBTQ+ students and young women. She pursues the engagement of students representing the school’s philosophy of inclusiveness as well as including and mentoring coaches that reflect students’ backgrounds. She nurtures student athletes and supports a leadership structure that reflects principles of inclusivity by allowing barriers to be broken and healthy relationships to be built. Her dedication knows no COVID boundaries either, despite being seconded to the COVID Public Health team, her dedication to her volunteer duties continued and was supported by using her vacation time to ensure the program could continue uninterrupted this Fall. Erin is showing us how to close the gap between communities through leading conversations and actions to decrease barriers to participation with the African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities.
We were asked who benefitted or were inspired by an Erin who is a role model and has been a runner for the past 20 years, even establishing elite status at some running events while inspiring others to give back in their own way locally and internationally.:
- No student is ever turned away and if she sees a barrier to participation, she endeavours to remove it, reaching out to the community for discrete assistance if necessary. Students recognize this and they consequently reach out to help others and encourage them to participate in active lifestyles as well supporting others no matter what.
- She walks the talk as her balanced, lived experience as a mother, an athlete and a supporter; and her humble openness make her an authentic voice when it comes to supporting others regardless of the challenges. She is inspiring other runners and run clubs to look at their own mission and vision statements to break down participation barriers with equity seeking groups
- Being the first runner to run across Gambia for the Nova Scotia Gambia Association inspired others to follow in her footsteps for the following 5 years.
- Our community has been positively impacted by the large number of diverse athletes she has coached and the coach leaders she has developed as they, in turn, give back to the community either through sport or inspiring them to assist other community organizations, such as the North End Opportunity Fund or the GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance).
And finally, we were asked what made Erin exceptional:
- Erin is dedicated to using her passion for active healthy lifestyles through running to move others. As a coach, she’s built diverse and inclusive teams, giving athletes an equitable supportive environment and lasting supports and friendships. She influences and inspires others to give back and support our communities in ways that they feel they can make a difference. The endless hours Erin gives back are bursting with her love for the sport of running and her passion for building inclusive, equitable and diverse communities of sustainable support defining the essence of volunteerism.
When Coaches Janet and Linda approached me to be part of the team to pull this nomination form together (with the whispers of an anonymous little birdie in our ears), I was all in, but deciding what is in and what is out is so challenging when you have so much to say about a deserving candidate. When Erin found out she was nominated and was the recipient, the first thing she said (after she was speechless for a little bit…and THAT doesn’t happen too often) was that she doesn’t do these things for the recognition. Spoken like a true volunteer. We know there are so many more examples of Erin’s volunteer impact has been on our community and we invite you to let her know by commenting on whatever platform this gets posted.
Thank you hardly seems enough to be able to express how grateful we truly are to have you in our lives and making our community a better place every day…
Post Script by Erin:
I am beyond honoured and touched to know that these amazing women, Doreen, Janet and Linda would go to such lengths to bring this award to me. While I graciously feel so honoured, I also feel dually like there are many others more deserving than me and also that my lifelong involvement in running has brought so much richness to my own life- it’s it’s own reward. Coaching and running have been cornerstones of my adult life. My own children are now involved in their own sports but they spent their toddler, preschool and early elementary years playing in the sand of the long jump pit and in the dirt of the Commons while Mommy coached her runners. I see my organic rewards daily. Now, in COVID lockdown, it’s my coaching partner Gerald and a Citadel grad/400m and 800m runner who are caring for my kids while I work long hours for Public Health. It’s former high school athletes who I see on the roads that buoy my tired sneakers in runs these days. I will place this special award along with the other rewards that coaching has brought me and remain so very grateful for the energy and love that Doreen, Linda and Janet put into this application.
