Debbie Mealia is a firebrand of the nicest kind. She sees a community need and works her heart out to find a resolution. In honour of her selfless contributions to the Sunshine Coast, Mealia is the recipient of this year's Herbert H. Carnegie Community Service Award from her company, Investors Group.
"I was totally shocked to discover I'd been chosen for this award, really excited," Mealia shared about her reaction to the accolade. But for anyone who knows her, the news came as no surprise.
Mealia has long been a humanitarian. Along with her husband Jim Budd and longtime friend Chris Moore, Mealia was one of the 1960s' peace activists.
In 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, the trio decided to come west to visit Budd's retired parents. Soon after, they became Sunshine Coast residents.
Mealia's first foray into the social needs of the Coast occurred when she had a job assessing women's educational needs here. She soon realized that abused women had nowhere to go. From there she initiated a project with Sunshine Coast Community Services that sparked the creation of Yew Transition House. Thirty years later, women still go there to create new lives.
Another project came about when Mealia saw a need to stimulate children who accompanied their mothers to Sunshine Coast Community Services for counselling. Her solution was to create a garden in memory of her mother-in-law, Catherine Budd. Grandma's Garden remains a safe oasis in the heart of Sechelt for children and adults alike.
However, Mealia's largest legacy to the Sunshine Coast is her tireless work for developmentally disabled adults on the Coast. Lit from within with a desire to bring meaning and joy to lives of the people served by Sunshine Coast Community Living (SCCL), Mealia is the current president of the organization.
"People with disabilities are the poorest of social services cousins," she said.
"It's been 10 years since they've had increases in any funding. They live on $850 a month and what will that buy?"
The biggest concern Mealia had was housing for the folks Community Living serves. So in her usual inimitable fashion, she set about creating a solution to the problem. And from a $5,000 investment from SCCL came a multi-million dollar project Midtown Apartments.
The enterprise sets aside four of its 24 units for people with development disabilities. The four apartments are mortgage free while the rest of the complex is profit making. This plan for the future excited Mealia.
"One day this will be an organization that has a substantial revenue stream outside government," she explained.
Mealia is humbled by this award. She gives a great deal of credit to the company she has worked for since 1984 for matching any monetary contribution she gives to the Coast. Plus she's quick to applaud the efforts of all the people she works with in the social agencies.
One of the people Mealia works most closely with is Glen McClughan, executive director of SCCL.
"Glen is open to new ideas and new ways of doing things," she explained.
For his part, McClughan is full of praise for the tireless woman.
"Debbie inspired us to think in entrepreneurial ways to create our own wealth and not just to rely on government. She's just such a positive person with unflagging enthusiasm. If you're going down one road and there's a problem, she just says, 'there's another way to do things'. She's revolutionary, actually," he said.
So what fires this woman to devote so much of her time to the community?
"Since 1979, people with disabilities have been thriving on the Coast, and holy smokes, what does that say about our community? I want to make a difference, and this [SCCL] has captured my heart," she said.
Inclusiveness is probably at the heart of all Mealia does. Next Thursday, Nov. 10, at 1 p.m. candidates running in the Sechelt municipal election will be part of a forum created for Community Living's clients.
"[SCCL worker] Christy Totten worked with the clients to craft questions. They're all voters," Mealia stated.
Mom to four, grandmother to five (the latest born Oct. 30 Anna Maria Angel to parents Jeremy Budd and Carla Arduin), Mealia sees the community at large as an extension of her family.
"I want to be part of a community that has room for everyone in it to thrive. A measure of a community is how well the least fortunate person is doing."
These are words Mealia lives by.
