Nominations for the 2019 Achievement Awards open July 2 (Image courtesy Lethbridge Sport Council on Facebook)

By Justin Goulet

New award announced by Lethbridge Sport Council

Jun 18, 2019 | 11:58 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – When nominations open for the Lethbridge Sport Council Achievement Awards next month, voters will notice a new title on the ballot.

The LSC has announced the creation of the Dr. Gary Bowie Sport Event Excellence Award.

“We’ve been hosting the Lethbridge Sport Council Achievement Awards for ten years and we’ve been celebrating everything about sport – from athletes to volunteers, organizations, administrators, coaching officials, and a large part of what our sport community does is host sport events and we wanted to celebrate that,” said Susan Eymann, Executive Director of the LSC.

“Who best to name it (the award) after than Doctor Gary Bowie?”

Eymann noted that Bowie was the founding Chair of the LSC when it was created in 2008.

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He also served as Sport Chair for the Lethbridge 1975 Canada Winter Games, 1996 Alberta Winter Games Chair and played a pivotal role during the transition phase from Bid Committee to Host Society for the Lethbridge 2020 Alberta Summer Games.

“Gary Bowie has been part of sport organizations, administration, part of developing facilities in Lethbridge – everything that needs to happen and be strong in order for the community to host events,” Eymann said.

“When supporting events in the community, we look to see how it impacts our residents, how can it better develop community and better develop the sport community in Lethbridge, so having the award named after Gary Bowie, I think really brings that level of grassroots and community to the award.”

She noted that potential nominees can include people who have hosted an event that’s taken place for many years, or only once.

“It can (also) be a volunteer who has a leadership role, or it can be a volunteer who volunteers for the event day or has done it numerous times, or just committed a lot of passion and energy. We’re hoping for a variety of nominations. I expect the selection jury to have quite a difficult time choosing,” she said.

She added that often, hosting events can be thought of as just bringing people outside of Lethbridge to Lethbridge. However, she said they like to look on the impact events have on the local community.

“For us, this award is really about how hosting events contributes to the community and how the community, the individuals, the organizations need to be so supportive and dedicate their time and energy. We thought it would be a great opportunity to now have an award for this.”

Eymann said that Bowie will present the award to the winner at a ceremony next year.

Nominations for achievements in 2019 open July 2 and close January 31, 2020. Votes, once opened, can be cast online at letbridgesportcouncil.ca.