Community Services food bank manager and longtime Coast volunteer Norm Blair has been recognized by Toastmasters with the 2020 Communication and Leadership Award.
The award was handed out online as part of an Oct. 17 awards evening for Toastmasters District 96, which includes Vancouver, Northern B.C. and Yukon.
Blair, whose official title with Community Services is food security lead, has a long association with Rotary, the Lions Club, youth sports and other community groups involved in sustainability and food security.
He was nominated for the Toastmasters award, which is open to non-members, by his colleagues at the Rotary Club of Sechelt.
“Over the years many of these activities overlapped,” Blair’s nomination reads. “These various NGOs represented a broad reach of community. They provided great insight for Norm to have a clear image of what was happening in community.”
Blair told Coast Reporter that he’s “humbled to be part of a community where I have been given the opportunity to speak on issues or concerns that affect members of our community.” The Toastmasters award, he said, was as much a recognition of the mentors who gave him the tools to communicate and lead in a way that brings people together as it was him.
Blair spoke at the awards evening about the future of volunteering and building relationships tackling questions like how volunteer organizations can continue to support themselves, the role of governments and businesses in supporting not for profits and “Will there always be people at the ready to step into volunteer roles?”
He said the future of volunteering will be built on growing relationships at the local level.
“With organizations facing all types of challenges to meet their goals, this could be the moment to look around to determine how relationships might be forged that bring greater stability and ability to ensure success,” Blair told the online audience. “The future of volunteering is not about more volunteers, it is about creating sustainable models.”
Blair also spoke about the food system as one of the key areas where relationships between non-profits and existing businesses can lead to social enterprises that address the so-called triple bottom line of creating societal, economic and environmental benefits.
