Jeff Dinsdale was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Quesnel Volunteer Citizen of the Year banquet on Wednesday, April 18.
He has proudly called Quesnel home since 1975 and in those 43 years has helped change the social landscape here so other residents can look upon the city with pride too.
A social service worker by trade, Dinsdale’s primary interests are health and wellness.
He recalls the first volunteering experience he performed within the city limits was with what became the Quesnel and District Cerebral Palsy Association (QDCPA).
He was relatively new to the community and started befriending the parents of children with special needs who were desperate for services for their children.
“There was very little available at the time,” Dinsdale says.
“No specialized services certainly, and there was a broad cross-section of children with special needs who were in need of physiotherapy or had developmental delays.”
With an eager band of volunteers, all with sleeves rolled up, they created the QDCPA out of thin air.
They organized fundraisers, lobbied the provincial government for grants and were finally able to hire Quesnel’s first pediatric physiotherapist, which assured regular delivery of services for those in need.
”[The QDCPA] … pioneered the whole spectrum of services that are offered to all young children, but particular children with special needs.”
A lot of the groundwork that was started by the QDCPA was useful in the creation of the Child Development Centre, which now makes the lives of over 400 local children and their families immeasurably better.
Dinsdale was also involved in the creation of the Grace Young Activity Centre and is a board member with Step-Up House and the Quesnel Canadian Mental Health Association.
His volunteer interests extend to recreation and history, including the Quesnel Paddlewheel Association, the Blackwater Paddlers, the Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Association and Mail Run, the Quesnel Museum and Archives Commission and the Dene Voyageur Heritage Society.
Dinsdale says with most of the initiatives, he doesn’t view his involvement as volunteer work, as he enjoys it so much and feels so passionately about what the groups are accomplishing.
“It’s the whole aspect of inequality on our community, where there are haves and have-nots,” he explains.
“What’s important to me is trying to make services available to everyone in community.
“It’s also important that they’re available as close to the community as possible. If we didn’t have those services, things wouldn’t be the same, particularly with the health and mental health services I’ve focused on.”
While Dinsdale is thrilled to have been acknowledged by the community and was grateful to see his friends in the audience when accepting the award, he feels inclined to point something out.
“I want to encourage people to volunteer. You saw the hair colour at the banquet last night,” he comments, meaning the many senior citizens in attendance.
“There’s a need for younger volunteers to step forward.
“People need to donate their time to support programs that they’re interested in.”