A well-known community member of Quesnel and long time volunteer with the Billy Barker Days Society was honored recently.
The late Jean Gunn was chosen unanimously to be the recipient of the 2020/2021 Sandy Robertson Memorial award.
It acknowledges a member of the society that has gone above and beyond in their contributions towards the festival.
Janice McLean, President of the Billy Barker Days Society said Gunn had been a member since 1997 and certainly had an impact on the festival.
“Jean had held many positions within the Society, most recently secretary, but she has been President and Vice-President in the past”, McLean said, “She’s been involved in Seniors Day and she was instrumental in bringing in the Power Pioneers to help with Seniors Day that was a huge addition to making that event popular, and she helped with costumes, every aspect of the festival she’s been involved in”.
McLean said Jean’s passing is such a huge loss on a personal level and for the organization that we really wanted to recognize what she had done for us by honoring with this award.
“I think her biggest contribution to us was just her attitude. She was someone you could always count on for a smile and a level head. If you needed some encouragement, Jean was the person that was there for us and really kept us going, and as you could imagine it would often be quite stressful both organizing the festival and putting it on”.
McLean added that if she could be anywhere close to what Jean Gunn has done she would be grateful, but those are pretty big boots to fill.
“We miss Jean, she’ll always be with us and we think of her often.”