Kugluktuk councillor honoured for volunteer service
Nadene McMenemy presented with Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers 2 years after being named recipient
Kugluktuk Coun. Nadene McMenemy, left, receives her Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers from Mayor Ryan Nivingalok at the hamlet’s March 18 council meeting. (Photo courtesy of Nadene McMenemy)
Making sure all of Kugluktuk’s children and families are fed and receiving gifts at Christmas is a year-round volunteering and fundraising effort, says hamlet Coun. Nadene McMenemy.
McMenemy was recognized for her volunteer work earlier this month when she was presented the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers — an honour awarded by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.
“Her fundraising efforts contributed to a new dementia care facility in Yellowknife and ensured those in need in Kugluktuk received food and gifts during the Christmas season,” a description of McMenemy’s work, published on the Governor General’s website said.
McMenemy found out she would receive the medal in 2023, but was told then there was a backlog in handing them out. As a result, she wasn’t sure when or how she would receive her medal. She said she also doesn’t know who put her name forward for consideration.
Fast forward to Kugluktuk’s March 18, hamlet council meeting, when McMenemy was surprised by Mayor Ryan Nivingalok with a presentation of her long-awaited medal.
“I couldn’t even speak for a little bit,” McMemeny said in an interview.
“I still get emotional talking about it … The councillors, they all clapped for me and came over and gave me a hug.”
McMenemy says she has volunteered and helped fundraise for causes throughout her three decades of living in the North — the last 13 years being in Kugluktuk.
Work to organize the community’s Christmas gift giveaway and feast starts in January, she said.
“I put all this time and effort into it because Kugluktuk is home to me now and they’re all like family that I do this for,” McMenemy said.
“It gives me great pleasure to do all this for children.”
Organizing such festivities is not cheap. Providing free food to the community over Christmas last year cost $60,000.
To raise that money, McMenemy works with organizations throughout the year and hosts a telethon event.
McMenemy says she has already started collecting gifts she plans to distribute for Christmas later this year.
“Everything I’ve done is for my parents to make them proud,” McMenemy said, reflecting on the significance of the medal.
“I hope I did that and I’ll keep this medal and I’ll have it for the rest of my life.”
The Governor General’s website lists McMenemy as one of 154 Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers recipients for 2023.
She is also listed as the most recent of 23 people from Nunavut to have received the medal since its creation in 1995.
Congratulations on a well deserved recognition.
In Nunavik, the reward for volunteering is to get fired.
Congratulations, Nadene! Well deserved recognition!
Nadene is amazing. I stayed at the Enokhok most times that I went to Kugluktuk for work, and she was always so friendly and accommodating – not to mention hilarious.
Congrats!