The Boulet family and Lethbridge College being honoured as Canadian Blood Services “champions” in Ottawa Monday.
The annual Honouring Canada’s Lifeline event celebrates donors, volunteers, peer recruiters, and partners from across the country.
The Boulets received the Schilly Award for their promotion of organ and tissue donation and for the creation of Green Shirt Day to honour and remember the families and victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
The movement also aims to inspire Canadians to talk with their families about becoming organ and tissue donors.
Lethbridge College took home the Regional Partner Award for the Prairie region for its long-time support of Canadian Blood Services and its tireless promotion of blood donation.
The college’s Executive Director of Advancement, Sandra Dufresne, attended to receive the award.
For over a decade, Lethbridge College has been a partner in saving lives and has contributed nearly 3,000 units of blood in that time.
A blood recipient from Lethbridge, Kate Potts, also spoke at the event.
Diagnosed at age four with acute myeloid leukemia, Potts received several rounds of chemotherapy as well as multiple blood transfusions over the course of a year. She survived and has been cancer free for 17 years.
In 2017, she worked as a summer student recruiter with Canadian Blood Services in Lethbridge and over the last three years, has also served on the executive team of the Lethbridge Lifesavers Club, a group of university students who ensure Canadian Blood Services has a focused presence on campus.