Laurel Awards
Laurel Awards 2022 Announcement
Currently, the Laurel awards have been paused due to the pandemic and are now in redevelopment stage.
Recognizing the Innovation & Creativity of Non Profit Organizations
To celebrate 100 years of continuous legal practice, Duncan Craig LLP developed the Laurel Awards in 1994. The laurel wreath has been a symbol of high honour for more than two thousand years. The history of the laurel is traced back to the early Greeks and Romans, who bestowed wreaths upon community leaders, scholars and athletes who had excelled in their endeavours.
In keeping with this tradition, Duncan Craig LLP established the Laurel Awards to honour non profit organizations and charities that further their objectives through exceptional creativity and innovation in Edmonton and area including Drayton Valley. Every fall, we gather at a luncheon to present the gold, silver, and bronze awards with honorariums of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively. In recent years, we have added a staff choice award and audience choice award which each have an honorarium as well.
In 2018 we celebrated our 24th Laurel Awards with a luncheon at the Chateau Lacombe where we honoured and recognized 52 non profits in Edmonton and area. Please click on the link below to read last year's program and read the bios from each of our nominees.
We were delighted to have Her Honour, the Honourable Lois E. Mitchell, CM, AOE, LLD, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta to provide a Toast to the Queen. The Keynote Speaker, Kathy Hawkesworth, LLB TEP, is the Director of Donor Services at the Edmonton Community Foundation and presented the Gold Laurel Award, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ricardo Miranda presented the Silver Laurel Award, and City Councillor Jon Dziadyk presented the Bronze Laurel Award.
This year, we are celebrating our 25th Anniversary of the Laurel Awards with a special luncheon in October. If you are interested in learning more about the Laurel Awards, please contact us.
2019 Winners
Caregivers Alberta
COMPASS for the Caregiver
COMPASS for the Caregiver is an eight-week workshop series developed by caregivers, for caregivers. The COMPASS supportive workshop series was developed to address a gap in caregivers services. Most caregiver programs focus on information to better care for a loved one while the impact that caring has on the caregiver’s own health is often overlooked. Recognizing that caregiving can be stressful, isolating and have profound negative impacts on both physical and mental health, the program teaches caregivers to care for themselves. Caregivers are taught to balance their own well-being with the challenges of caregiving. Ultimately, the goal is to increase resiliency and decrease caregiver burnout.
Youth Restorative Action Project
Youth Justice Committee
The Youth Justice Committee program offers young people an opportunity to repair the harm caused by their actions. Part-time File Coordinators facilitate intakes with the youth, hold restorative justice panels involving the youth, victims, and community members; oversee the completion of conditions; and connect youth to other supports including mentors and outside agencies. A typical youth is involved with these programs from four months to one year. The aim is for youth to complete the program, repair the harm caused by their actions, and to avoid further involvement with the Youth Criminal Justice system.
University of Alberta Campus Food Bank
Campus Kitchens & Grocery Buses Program
The goal of the Campus Kitchens & Grocery Buses Program is to reduce food insecurity on campus. A wide variety of driving factors are addressed, such as access to affordable grocery stores, food education and skills, and decreasing social isolation. The yearly program includes recipe sharing, food educations delivered in 20 Campus Kitchens classes as well as 20 Grocery Bus trips. Campus Kitchens and Grocery Buses run nearly every week supporting students throughout the school year.
Berkeley’s Place
Pet Emergency Fund
In 2018, the Pet Emergency Fund assisted families who were victims of house fires, but managed to escape with their pets. The goal of the emergency fund is to take the stress off guardians by getting their pets settled with safe, new toys, enclosures and more importantly the food they are used to eating, in an attempt to help limit the distress and financial hardship felt in an already difficult situation.
SkirtsAfire Festival
Interpretation in MainStage Play
For 2020’s festival, SkirtsAfire was proud to be presenting their MainStage play “The Blue Hour” by local playwright, Michele Vance Hehir. The play won the Alberta Playwriting competition in 2017 and was one of the chosen plays in SkirtsAfire’s play development series “Peep Show” in 2018. SkirtsAfire would like to offer ASL interpretation for 5 of “The Blue Hour” performances in order to make it accessible to deaf audiences. They felt this was an important step to bring their festival to more communities who may not have been able to experience it. As many arts organizations are realizing, accessibility is everything. Theatre brings with it a magic of bringing people together to be touched by something live, happening right before their eyes.