Four members of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) received Realtors Care Awards at a special awards luncheon recently in Nanaimo, B.C.
VIREB hosted the event in conjunction with its annual general meeting to recognize members who give back to their communities. Coast Capital Savings sponsored the event for the ninth year in a row.
Nancy Allwarden, Jillian Dashwood, Ian Mackay and Dawn Walton received the awards.
VIREB will donate $500 to each recipient’s chosen charity.
Allwarden, a Realtor with Discovery Islands Realty on Quadra Island, has worked on many volunteer boards and organizations. An alternate director of Quadra Island Emergency Support Services, Allwarden is also a dispatcher and member of the Quadra Island Fire Department, recently passing her First Responder course. She serves as president of the Old Age Pensioners group on Quadra and as treasurer of the Quadra Photography Club. Allwarden also looks after a colony of feral cats.
For Dashwood, a Realtor with Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty in Ladysmith, volunteering is a way of life. Playschool and parenting groups, community theatre, emergency preparedness initiatives and municipal politics have all benefited from Dashwood’s involvement, says the board. While serving on Ladysmith Town Council, she helped create the Regional Affordable Housing Directorate and Homelessness Committee and she continues to support affordable housing initiatives in the Cowichan Valley. Dashwood helped establish the Crime Prevention Action Council and a Community Clean-Up team in addition to serving for seven years as a board member of the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce.
Mackay, who is with Royal LePage Parksville-Qualicum Beach Realty, has used his real estate knowledge and business experience to help several local organizations with business initiatives. As board chair of Oceanside Hospice Society, he helped secure multi-year provincial funding and initiated a capital improvement fund that has seen significant growth.
Mackay has also worked diligently to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Association, Oceanside Homelessness Task Force, Shelter Foundation (Haven House) and the Salvation Army Extreme Weather Shelter. He is currently co-chair of the Salvation Army Property Search Committee.
Walton, a Realtor with Re/Max Nanaimo, is an executive member of the Children’s Miracle Network Board of Directors. Walton has helped his brokerage become the Re/Max office in Western Canada with the highest donations. She has also donated many volunteer hours to Habitat for Humanity in Nanaimo and Victoria. Some of Walton’s other volunteer work includes Secret Santa Nanaimo, the ScotiaBank MS Bike Ride, Nanaimo Minor Hockey, Muffy’s Classic Gold Tournament, the B.C. Summer Games, Vancouver Island Music Fest and the City of Nanaimo’s Community Improvement Program.
