A humble man from Ste. Anne has been recognized for all of the time he’s put into his community over the years.

Guy Levesque received the Manitoba Council on Aging Recognition award. The Award recognizes seniors who are active in their community and generously give their time. Levesque has been involved in countless different committees and boards over the years but says he wasn't expecting this.

"I was very surprised because I didn’t even know my name had been sent in and a couple of weeks ago I came home from going shopping with my wife and there was a message on the phone to call this particular number. She wanted to talk to me so I phoned and it was the Manitoba Council on Aging. She says just to let you know, you’ve been nominated for an award, she didn’t tell me what kind of award but just an award. Then she said you also won it, well that totally caught me off guard, I didn’t even know my name had been nominated."

The former Southern Health Board Chair, one of the founders of the Ste Anne food bank and also former longstanding CAO of the Town of Ste Anne explains what kept him going all these years.

"It was my hometown, that was a big part of it. I knew everybody and when you work in a small town, to do a good job as CAO, you basically have to be involved in almost everything. I was very seldom at home, I always had this meeting, I never got to see my Montreal Canadiens play."

Levesque adds he was very honoured that someone went out of their way to nominate him and says its a really good feeling knowing there are people behind your back supporting you. He says his it was his colleagues from the food bank who nominated him for the award. "I was very surprised when I found out that I had won the award" Levesque notes. "But you don’t do it for the awards, you do it because you want to be a part of the community and you want to help your community."

The gala was held at the Manitoba Legislature last Friday.