Civic award winners obvious choices: mayor

Thursday was a night of recognition in Medicine Hat.

The Esplanade played host to the Civic Recognition Awards, a bi-annual celebration of people nominated by Hatters for their contributions to the Hat community.

The winners on the night were Stan Sakamoto (Community Service), Arne Handley (Cultural), John Slater (Environmental) and Gerald Freedman (Humanitarian).

Mayor Ted Clugston says the winners were easy, and deserving, choices.

“All of our winners tonight really show that they love this community,” he said after the awards ceremony. “I know all of these recipients personally and I can say for certain that these awards are going to some really great people, and great members of the community — it’s going to events like this that really makes me proud to be mayor of this city.”

Though he was very happy to see the recipients awarded, Clugston says he hopes to see more nominations at the 2019 ceremony.

“I was surprised to see that there weren’t that many nominations for this year,” he said. “We actually have a total of six awards to give out, but only did the four tonight. I know this community has a ton of great people in it — I would have liked to have seen us give out the maximum amount of awards.”

People wishing to nominate someone for the 2019 awards can find a nomination sheet on the city’s website.