YMCA Awards Three Distinguished People For Community Peace-Building
/Jason King, Lee-Anne Quinn and Husayn Dharshi were honoured for their community efforts as they received a YMCA of Central East Ontario Peace Medal in a ceremony at their facility on Thursday morning.
Jason King (left) and Maj. Lee-Ann Quinn (right) have been awarded Peace Medals from the YMCA of Central East Ontario for making significant contributions toward peace-building in the community. Also receiving the award was Husayn Dharshi (absent). Coun. Alex Bierk also received the award from 2020 when the pandemic prevented an in-person ceremony. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
The award celebrates community individuals who have made significant contributions toward peace-building.
“The recipients of the YMCA Peace Medal show us the importance of building communities, locally, nationally or internationally, where people feel that they belong and are included,” said David Allen, YMCA president and CEO. “Most often, their actions started small and grew into something bigger than themselves. That is the power of peace.”
King is fully blind from microphthalmia, a rare condition that makes eyes abnormally small and occurs before birth. He has played significant roles with the Council for Persons with Disabilities and Community Living. King has also volunteered at the Brain Injury Association, Lions Club and Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
“I want to see everyone succeed in life,” said King. “I've been very lucky over the years. I've had family that supported me. My father was huge influence in my life and made sure that I was able to do things like anyone else would be able to do. It's something that I'm passionate about, to make sure that people with disabilities can be recognized as people.”
King was nominated by one of his volunteers for the award and was told he was up for the award in late November.
“It's humbling to have one of my own volunteers put me in for something like this because I considered them my heroes,” explained King.
Major Lee-Anne Quinn spent 26 years in the Canadian Forces and retired from the military in September 2008. Quinn was an honorary Colonel with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment from 2018 to 2022, the first female in 100 years.
She has been deployed in Northern Ontario and the Yukon Territories. Her military service has also had international reach, extending to work in Somalia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.
Since 2015, Quinn has assisted her sponsor team in getting 26 Syrian refugees to Peterborough. In May 2022, Quinn helped open the Borck Primary Care Clinic to provide healthcare for marginalized people. She says she believes helping the community is a moral obligation.
“If I want to see things be better, if I want to see the homeless get a chance to survive, it is my moral obligation to help make that happen,” Quinn explained. “No ifs, and or buts. You can't be a citizen and just show up. You need to be a citizen to show up and make a difference.”
She is a Guinness record holder. In 1993, she and her fellow military personnel did a 270 km non-stop stretcher carry and she was the only woman part of that group.
Outside of the military, she is a Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame inductee for softball and hockey, an Ontario Florence Nightingale Award recipient, was given the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Medal and has the highest national honour of being bestowed the Order of Canada. Quinn is a nurse practitioner in primary healthcare since returning to Peterborough.
“All you have to do is find a volunteer organization and if you have a morning or afternoon free during the week, you could make a difference,” she explained. “There's so many volunteer positions, honestly, just reach out to them and ask them if you can take a position. It means the absolute world to the citizens of Peterborough to have volunteers.”
Quinn with her peace medal, given by David Allen of the YMCA. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
