Featured Nominees

Bob Davisson
Building schools and hope in Haiti It’s impossible not to marvel at the optimism in Bob Davisson’s voice when he speaks about Haiti, whose capital, Port-au-Prince, was left in ruins after last January’s earthquake. “People ask me, ‘How are things in Haiti?’ And I say, ‘I see progress!’” Hard not to marvel because where others see [...]...read more

Weldetinsae Yemane
A recent immigrant helps build homes for those who need them Weldetinsae Yemane is no stranger to hardship. Or hunger. Or homelessness. He’s had more than his share of all. Born in Eritrea, “Welde” (as his Canadian friends call him) was deported, by Ethiopia, to Sudan during a period of violent conflict. The Sudanese authorities shipped [...]...read more

Jorge de Guzman
A martial arts expert helps children in the Phillippines ward off sexual abuse After years of working to prevent sex abuse of children, Jorge de Guzman says he’s no closer to understanding why it’s so rampant. “I’m not a moralist, but I see insanity in it.” Yet he refuses to feel powerless, and has now made [...]...read more

Eliza Olson
Leading the fight to save one of North America’s largest peat lands As a child, Eliza Olson witnessed the destruction of a local pond. A family of ducks was displaced—a chilling experience that would one day lead to a passion to preserve the country’s wetlands.  In 1988, Olson learned that part of the bog near [...]...read more

Jeff Schnurr
A maritime native helps to restore the ecological world, one tree at a time Jeff Schnurr doesn’t believe in fate (as an activist he finds the concept of inevitability lame, literally), but he does believe in coincidence. Specifically, the right-place-at-the-right-time phenomenon. It was quite by accident that the career tree planter found himself on Pemba, a tiny, [...]...read more

Gladys Radek
A B.C. woman campaigns for justice in the shadow of the missing and murdered When Gladys Radek speaks of her beloved niece, Tamara Chipman, who disappeared in 2005 along Highway 16 in northern British Columbia, emotion rises with every syllable. “She was last seen hitchhiking out of Prince Rupert. The shocking reality of a family member [...]...read more

Victor Fernandez
Fighting Fire in Latin and South America with Canadian Compassion In Chile, fighting fires is an all-volunteer, often underfunded effort—a reality that makes Victor Fernandez fret about the safety of his former firefighting colleagues in his native country. Now a firefighter in St. Albert, Alta., where he settled in the 1980s after immigrating to Canada, Fernandez [...]...read more

Bobby Hayes
In Saint John, one man wages a war on behalf of the city’s street kids Bobby Hayes spends a lot of his time at Crack Corner. No, he’s not using. Hayes hangs out there because, sadly, the children he serves frequently find themselves at the intersection of Saint John, N.B.’s, infamous Crack Corner and Hooker Alley. Not [...]...read more

Lindsay Willms
A student teacher heads to the hills to offer challenged children a rare taste of freedom Lindsay Willms truly is a volunteer for all seasons: in summer, she gives her time to kids with cancer at Camp Goodtimes, in Maple Ridge, B.C., and in winter she spends every weekend on the slopes helping children with disabilities [...]...read more

Christopher Opio
Where there’s a well, there’s a way. A Canadian helps Africans tap into better health Vivid memories of the dirty, unsafe water his family drank to survive, and the preventable deaths of so many from water-borne illnesses, inspired Dr. Christopher Opio, professor of Forestry at the University of Northern British Columbia, to find a way to [...]...read more
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