Mallett presented Pioneer Award

Dedicated advocate on housing needs

Heidi Mallett is this year’s recipient of Community Inclusions Inc.’s Pioneer Award. Mallett, a chairwoman on Community Inclusions’ board of directors, was presented with the award during the organization’s annual meeting.

The award recognizes an individual annually whose work and volunteer activities help further Community Inclusions’ objectives in working for the benefit of persons in West Prince with intellectual disabilities. When Mallett was born, doctors told her parents she would not likely walk or talk. She soon proved them wrong on both accounts.

She did, however face many challenges associated with hearing and visual impairment. At the age of 17, she moved to Halifax to attend the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority (APSEA) school for the hearing and sight impaired. She still maintains contact with many of the friends she made there.

Residential co-ordinator for Community Inclusions, Ethel Ellsworth, outlined some of the organizations Mallett has been involved with since returning to P.E.I. She helped start a Sunday School Canadian Association Council for the Blind, participated in local and provincial Special Olympics events for bowling, track and field, golf, snowshoeing, swimming and bocce. She won gold and silver medals in snowshoeing at the National Winter Games in Edmonton in 2012 and added a bronze medal for golf two years later in Vancouver.

Mallett worked with P.E.I. People First to form a West Prince group in 2005 to hold workshops and raise awareness on disability-related issues such as housing, employment, transportation and leadership skills. She now represents P.E.I. on the People First of Canada National Board. The Pioneer Award recipient joined the Community Inclusions board in 2007 and sat on its housing committee working on the Alberton House and O’Leary Apartments projects. She also advocated for sidewalks to Alberton House. She got her start in community involvement through Brownies, Girl Guides, church youth groups and the Canadian Deaf Blind and Ruebella Association Camp. She credits her mother’s support and belief in her abilities for helping her develop her independence.

Mallett was named a Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient in 2012 in recognition of her community volunteer work.

&3*$ .$$"35): +063/"- 1*0/&&3 Maurice Poirier, right, chairman of Community Inclusions’ Board of Directors, congratulates the organization’s chairwoman, Heidi Mallett, on being named the 2017 recipient of the Pioneer Award. From left are Laura Sarlo, master of ceremonies for...