Portage resident chosen for one of three Lieutenant Governor Awards

A Portage la Prairie resident was nominated and won one of three Lieutenant Governor's Community Leadership Awards for Manitoba. Al Braun was nominated by the Portage Learning and Literacy Centre.

Braun outlines what was involved in the process.

"They submitted that in along with a letter on the side of support from Prairie Alliance Church and Dufferin Villa, which is the most recent project that I've been working on," says Braun. "I've been with the Portage Learning and Literacy Centre as a volunteer for about 26 years and just recently retired in December. That's been a long-term volunteer situation for me. Now with Prairie Alliance Church, I've been with them for many more years than that and volunteered there in a variety of capacities."

Braun says he was on the board of elders for the church and part of the building committee. He remembers the day when the current church building used to be a Case dealership.

"With volunteering, that's not an individual sport, if you want to use that," continues Braun. "It's been working with teams, and so I've worked with teams there, at the Learning Centre, and at Dufferin Villa. The most recent one is Dufferin Villa. That's ten years in the making and we're currently excited to be having our grand opening on September the 13th. It's a project that the community has supported well and is excited about having. The leadership of our community has encouraged us to build that building and we think it's a wonderful building and facility."

Braun's letter from Lieutenant Governor

This past Sunday, the Learning and Literacy Centre threw a party in honour of Braun and his award. 

"It was at the church," adds Braun. "The church volunteered its facilities and the goodies in on that, and it was very gracious of them to do that. It was part of their support of that nomination. Pastor Nathan had written a wonderful letter in support of the nomination."

He explains the award will be presented in person by the Lieutenant Governor on September 6th. 

"This past Saturday, we went to Winnipeg and had a media presentation," continues Braun. "They did a media taping there of which we were led to believe that they're going to put that together with all the nominees on the various programs and then do a one-hour television program sometime. It's an extremely humbling experience. It was not expected at all. It was a complete surprise and that's not why you do volunteering -- to be recognized. In that regard, it feels a little bit awkward to have this attention drawn to myself when I'm not the person that has done all the work. It's groups of people that I have had the tremendous privilege of working on all of these organizations to accomplish these goals. That's what volunteering is. Many people getting together to accomplish a goal and to improve our community."

Braun adds this is what the Learning and Literacy Centre is all about as well as the church and Dufferin Villa --  it's for our community, and we want to better our community by volunteering.