 Good evening and welcome everyone. I'm Katrina Chan, BC's Minister of State for Child Care. I'm really honored to be your host this evening for the 2021 Child Care Awards of Excellence, our first ever virtual ceremony, but hopefully the last as well. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get her in person and being able to celebrate this very important occasion together. And I do wanna begin by acknowledging that I'm joining you from my office here at the BC Legislature in Victoria, which is on the traditional, unceded traditional territories of the Luwangan speaking peoples. And as we gather from various parts of BC, I hope you all take a moment to reflect on the unceded traditional territories where you're coming from and really be thankful and reminding us how it's important and how thankful we are to live on this beautiful land and sharing this beautiful community with our indigenous communities and thank them for allowing us to be here. And as we get her from all parts of BC, I would like to start by introducing Monique Grace-Smith, who you may know from her very popular children's books, which I often give out and share with my friends, kids for birthdays and special occasions. And I would like to welcome Monique to provide a traditional welcome. Take it away, Monique. Mm. Can you ask one more time, Minister Chen? Tansi and Doti Mac meet in the Naskomon. Can you ask Homo-Tin to the West Sanage people whose territory I'm coming to you from today? And, you know, I look out my window and I see all kinds of shades of greens and golds and the flowers are coming up and the gardens coming up. And I'm incredibly grateful to the West Sanage people for the gift of living on these territories to the ancestors who have been stewards of both the land and the water. And those who are the stewards and the caretakers today and those little citizens that were, you know, talking about in some ways tonight and those ones who are yet to come, who will be the caretakers and the stewards of this land? And I'm incredibly grateful to live here in this place that's also known as Victoria, part of the outskirts of Victoria. When I look out and I see those little buds coming up through the earth, I think of, in my Nihihou language, the word sagitan, which means like love. It like comes from like sagit to win. And that little bud coming up from the earth means sagigan. And it means like, you know, when we think about the love that the sun, the rain, and that we give to the earth in order for all those little plants to come up, it's like those little citizens in all of the childcare centers. And as minister Chen said, my English name is Monique Graysmith and my traditional name is Misty Quashke-Gos. And I am incredibly grateful to be celebrating with you tonight that, you know, when you think that there were almost a hundred nominations sent in for these awards, that's really phenomenal, really phenomenal that not only are all of those who have won, who we will be celebrating tonight, but that so many people, colleagues, families, how those who are caring for our littlest citizens in such reverence with such dignity that they nominated them for these awards really says a huge amount. My family, we come from Papikesee's First Nation in the Capel Valley of Saskatchewan. I am the granddaughter of Noel Shavetail who was then adopted by Frank Cardinal and Mary Fayant, my grandmother was Isabelle Gray. And on my dad's side, I'm the granddaughter of Raymond Smith and Beatrice Johnstone. My parents were Ed Smith and Shirley Graysmith. And I have twins who are now 17 and some of you I know we've been on this journey together in childcare and early years for a long time. And you'll be like, oh my gosh, they're graduating. That's how I feel. And so tonight, I think about Segegan, about love, about those little plants that are coming to being and about how each of you who were honoring tonight and all who were nominated are like cookie people to those little citizens. And I know that some of you have heard me talk about cookie people before, that there are these people who come into our lives, sometimes just for a moment and sometimes for a lifetime. And they alter our trajectory. They help us to see the gifts we've been blessed with. They remind us about walking in a good way. They remind us about love, about hope, about possibility. And they help us to understand how to use these gifts we've been blessed with in a good way. And so all of you who were honoring tonight and all who have been nominated are cookie people to those little citizens and their families in the childcare centers that you work in that you contribute to. And I include their families because the love that you give to those little citizens reverberates to their families. And not only does the love reverberate, but when a child sees their parent or their grandparent or their uncle or auntie or older cousin being held up with dignity and respect, it changes them. And so you as childcare providers, early childhood educators as elders, you're helping to raise up our future. And I'm not sure of a more important role in society than helping to raise up our future. So tonight we're gathering to honor nine awards. The regional awards of excellence for the North, Vancouver Coastal, the Interior, the Fraser and Vancouver Island, the partnership awards with government and community, the Innovation Award, the Early Care and Learning Leadership Award, the Emerging Leader Award, the Inclusive Practices Award, the Perseverance Award, and the Lenore Pritchard Award of Excellence. Wow, what a bounty of awards for this evening. And the ripple effect that will fall out, that will flow out not only from this evening, but as everything continues over the next few weeks and months, some of you as the award winners, the impact of being nominated and of being held up as a recipient, the impact won't really hit you in a good way until perhaps down the road, maybe you'll be sitting by the river and you'll be like, that happened. Wow, maybe you'll be driving in your car, listen to, I don't know, maybe Elvis. And then you'll be like, holy doodle, that happened. Or maybe a child will give you a hug, there's just a little extra longer around your neck. And you'll be like, this is why I do this, about love, about segitowin, and about segigan, those little sprouts, those little citizens and how we love them into being. A couple of weeks ago, I heard Carrie McClelland, pardon me, Carrie McClelland, and I was talking about cookie people and he said to me, oh, they're like the people who love us into existence. I was like, oh. And so for all of you who are joining us tonight, thank you for loving those little citizens and their families into existence. For your absolutely important work in contributing to the wellness of our world. I raise my hands to you and put my heart and say, can you ask one more time? Thank you. And congratulations to the award winners, to all the nominees, to those who nominated, and also to those little citizens and their families who are feeling the ripple effect of your extraordinary contributions. Talk to us, all my relations. Thank you so much, Monique. I'm always so inspired to hear you speak. It's so wonderful to have you join us here this evening. We're just so honored and your congratulations is so special to everybody. And you make me think of and really honor the cookie people in my life. And I will make sure I do that every day, moving forward from now on as well. So hi, everybody. I'm Mitzi Dean. I'm BC's Minister of Children and Family Development and I use she, her pronouns. I'm joining you tonight from my home, which is on the traditional territory of the Chianu First Nation. And before we dive into the awards, I just wanted to take a few moments to talk a bit about our journey of getting here this evening. So as Minister Chen said, we last held the Child Care Awards of Excellence in 2018. They were in person in Vancouver. Minister Chen was there, my predecessor, Minister Conroy was there. What a special event that was. And while we can't meet in person this year, we're very happy to celebrate with you in this unique and innovative way on screen with the hope and anticipation of being able to return to an in-person celebration next time. I'm personally so honored to be the Minister of Children and Family Development. And I just really love working alongside Katrina who's been leading and really championing the childcare file since 2017. Our goal is to make life more affordable for families. And a big part of that is making childcare more available, more accessible, and of course, more affordable. Whilst also supporting those who provide childcare and work in the sector to succeed. Katrina has been such a champion for this cause. She's worked tirelessly along with all of our partners to move BC along the path to universal childcare. It will take time to get there, but we are making progress. And while the pandemic has changed many things in our province, it hasn't changed our commitment to making inclusive universal childcare a reality. So I offer my heartfelt thanks to Katrina for her leadership. And I also offer my sincere gratitude and appreciation to everyone here this evening. You are rising to the challenge, working in partnership, offering exemplary early care and learning each and every day. You're shining examples of the difference that quality early care and learning opportunities can make in children's lives. So I feel really honored to be here this evening to hear your stories and to celebrate your success. And I will turn things back over to Katrina now. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Minister Ding, for joining us here tonight for your greetings, your very kind words. I have to say, this is all teamwork. I've learned so much from all of you, including many of the recipients here today from childcare providers, professionals, early childhood educators, parents, advocates. This has been such an important learning journey for all of us here in British Columbia to think about how we can create an inclusive, affordable quality and accessible universal childcare system for all families in BC. And I could not do this work with a lot of the people who have supported this work along the way. And I'm so very honored to be able to work with Minister Ding during this very important journey. And thank you, Minister Ding, again, for your leadership and as someone who comes from the community services sector, that Minister Ding has always brought a lot of different and fresh perspectives for me to learn from her as well. So thank you so much for being part of this event today. And really, thanks to everybody from BC who has helped us to work together to build this new first social program in BC. That's long overdue. We are on this important journey to make sure we are able to build a new system for BC families. So tonight, we are really celebrating the people and groups who have been helping families and communities thrive by supporting high quality and inclusive early learning and care in BC. And your achievements deserve our gratitude and recognition on a daily basis. But this year, more than ever before, I'm proud to celebrate the dedication and resilience of the people and communities who have been pulling together to help our children and families through this very challenging times. As you know, the Child Care Awards of Excellence are held every two years, as Minister Ding has mentioned. The last year, the award was postponed as we all adapt to this new reality of living in a pandemic. Our lives have been turned upside down, but early childhood educators, as I often say, that there are no workforce behind a workforce. And Child Care Providers have worked so hard to make sure that we can continue to provide this critical services to families and children safely and quickly. And as we are adjusting to the new normal with COVID-19, early childhood educators were there, have always been there along the way to provide a sense of normalcy and routine for kids and families. You've not only helped essential services workers like healthcare professionals and first responders to be able to have Child Care during the very challenging times during past year, but you've also helped parents like me who continue to struggle with Child Care to make sure that we can count on your services and support so we can continue the work we do, continue to contribute to our local economy. So the work you do is really important, not just for our young children, for our families, but also for our economy and not as our economic recovery process and for our community as a whole. And I've been so inspired by the way early childhood educators across the province have stepped up to the challenge of COVID-19. Your professionalism, your dedication is very much appreciated. You've made an incredible difference in the lives of so many this year. So this award will help us to celebrate you, the Child Care heroes in our community. And that is why, even though we could not come together in person this year, we wanted to find a way to celebrate you, to honor what the work you do and to thank you. So tonight there are 17 award winners here with us across nine categories and you all share some common characteristics that you have all been working hard towards inclusive and culturally relevant and inclusive childcare programings in one way or another. Many are taking important steps towards meaningful reconciliation or partnerships with indigenous peoples and teaching our children valuable lessons about compassion and appreciation for the things that makes us all unique. May is Child Care Months in BC and happy Child Care Months. And this Child Care Awards of Excellence will give us an extra opportunity to truly celebrate early care and learning professionals throughout the province. And Premier John Horgan has put together a video greeting to celebrate the month. So I would like to play that for you now. Premier John Horgan here and May is Child Care Month in BC. I wanna recognize the many child care providers and early childhood educators who are going above and beyond. Not only have you kept kids safe through the pandemic but you are the workforce that is behind the workforce. Thousands of frontline workers can continue doing their jobs knowing their children are being cared for. The benefit for British Columbians is outstanding and I wanna thank you so much for that. We're proud to return the support by doubling the current wage enhancement for BC's early childhood educators. We are also adding thousands of new $10 day spaces for families. And we are funding hundreds more no fee spaces run by Indigenous communities for Indigenous children. That is all part of the fastest creation of child care spaces in BC history. And we will continue to keep working to build a universal quality and affordable child care system for families across this province. For all that you do to help give kids the best start possible in life, thank you. That was great and thank you, Premier John Horgan. We often have discussions about early learning and care and the Premier definitely share his appreciation and gratitude for all early learning and care professionals here in BC. So now I'm really thrilled to be able to start introducing the winners of some of our awards tonight. The first one is the Norse region winner for the original awards of excellence who is Lynette McAllison of YMCA of Norse and BC in Prince George. Lynette amplifies and really has set up a great example of both a caring heart and an incredible knowledge for this profession. She's being involved in child care in many different ways from running her own in-home child care to now being the director of child care operations. She has a diverse experience, brings tons of expertise in this field and she's always aware of what is required to run the quality child care program and will do anything in her ability to help her organizations thrive in child care. She really values her team and is always finding ways to both encourage and show her team that they are truly appreciated. So congratulations, Lynette. I welcome you to say a few words. Thank you, Minister Chen and congratulations to all of you here tonight with myself. Just want to take a moment to acknowledge that I'm coming to you from the traditional territory of the Claytley today and I'm very grateful to work and play and raise my family here. I guess just a few words would be that, a huge thank you to my own family. They're my inspiration, my joy, my children, my husband. I feel very blessed. And to my, especially to my team, for those that you don't know that YMCA of Norse BC is currently in five locations throughout the North and growing. And just having that incredible team of support that really focuses on quality is so important as we move to a new community or as we help another partner to recognize what new spaces might look like. We couldn't do that. I couldn't do that without those people on the ground at the frontline caring for our children every day. And so to accept this award comes with all of them as well in my mind. So yeah, I just wanna say thank you so much. Thank you to my colleagues at the YMCA of Northern BC. How fortunate am I to be able to do what I love and what I'm passionate about every single day and have them go, oh yeah, we'll get behind you. That's an amazing life to be living and I'm truly grateful and thankful to God for that. So yeah, thank you to all of you for this award and to those that nominated me. And I'm so excited about the future of childcare in BC. I think that there's great days ahead and I just wanna thank all of you for the work that you're doing as well. Thank you so much, Lynette. And thank you so much for your years of services and dedication to this sector. And now I would like to introduce the winner of the Fraser region of the 2021 award of excellence, Maria Carnalli of Abbessport. Currently, Maria serves as the manager of early years and family supports in the counseling, child youth and family services department and Archway community services and over her 33 years of career. Maria has adopted her programming to meet community needs and from our understanding, her leadership has really increased connections for childcare providers across Abbessport, across the communities, reducing isolation and providing opportunities for training and networking. And that is so critical during this pandemic. Maria does not just listen and motivate, she responds fully and moves towards positive changes. She's a true advocate for quality childcare in Abbessport and holds too many volunteer roles to name. Congratulations, Maria. I would like to also invite you to say a few words. Thank you so much. So as well, I would love to acknowledge where I sit and I sit on the beautiful unseated solo territory which includes the MAPSQI and SUMAPS First Nations. So it's a beautiful, beautiful, sunny day here. I hope it is in the rest of the province as well. So I just wanna acknowledge three sort of groups of people in my life that have made a difference as far as early childhood and the work that I've done. And the first and in no particular order are the amazing coalition of childcare advocates of BC who I sit with who are the FEM tours that I truly look up to. They make me better and make me do better every day. And so they are so important and I can't say enough to appreciate them. My work, the second is my work at Archway Community Services. I've been there for over 26 years and every crazy childcare idea, every thought I've had around how to support care providers, they've been behind me. The team I work with is amazing. They are amazing, amazing people who give back and who provide social justice and care for vulnerable families and all families in the area. And last, which is never least is my family. And I'm just gonna name them off really quickly is Bev, Austin, Danica, Luke, Mike and Carol. And they are the people who have supported me, listened to me when I ramp and given me the opportunity to do this good work. And as both Minister Chen has said and the Premier have said childcare is the workforce behind the workforce. And I'm so proud to be an early childhood educator and the work that we all do. And I look around this little, well, virtual room and I'm so proud to be sort of virtually sitting with everybody here because we all have made such a difference and we've come such a long way. And I'm so excited to see what we have to come next because I think it's a super bright future. Thank you for the acknowledgement. Thank you so much, Maria. And you are so correct. I have to say that when we started the work in 2017 I often asked how come government has never really put a focus on childcare? How come this was never the top priority? But we've come a long way. We've started with our childcare BC plan. We've put together a strong foundation since 2017 being able to achieve quite a bit in the past three and a half short years but there's so much work to do to be able to build a new social program. But this pandemic has really shown us the importance of childcare. There's so much work to do. We need to build a new social program. And now with the federal government saying now we need a national childcare system. It's time to work together with three levels of government, with communities across BC and with the hard work. And thank you so much to all of you for your dedication and hard work from the early childcare and learning sector that we need to continue this journey to build a new social program that can benefit generations to come. So thank you, Maria for your words. So now for the Island vision for the 2021 childcare award of excellence that goes to Vanessa Lee who operates Story Yoga in Victoria. Vanessa encourages the whole early childhood education community to strive for excellence leading by example. She provides unique programming combining children's literature with yoga. That sounds fun. I would love to learn how you do that because I love yoga too. With a strong emphasis on providing natural, beautiful sensory rich re-environment for children to learn and explore. Vanessa empowers children, parents, staff in the community with her passion along with her selfless attitude and dedication. Congratulations, Vanessa. I would like to welcome to you to say a few words as well. Good evening. Thank you, Minister Chen. It's an incredible honor to be receiving this award alongside the other 16 recipients who are striving for excellence in childcare. This award is shared with my team of 12 educators who uphold Story Yoga standard of excellence and with the goal of shifting and shaping the nature of childcare for many years to come. This award also belongs to my husband and business partner Matthew Lee who has made my vision a reality by creating and curating really state-of-the-art classroom environments for children and families and staff to call home. These environments wholeheartedly reflect my image of children and really my belief in what early childhood should be. And lastly, I just want to acknowledge my daughter who's two, her name's Aurora and she really continues to be a new source of inspiration for deepening my commitment to redefining what quality early childhood should be. So thank you for this opportunity to really be seen in this way and to be acknowledged and really just to honor the work that myself and all of these recipients are doing and how we are really shaping the future of the generations for these little people to come. So thank you. Thank you so much, Vanessa. And I cannot agree with you more about how we really learn from our young children. It's so wonderful to hear you recognizing your child. I often learn a lot from my son who is now seven-year-old through this journey. I did not grew up in Canada. I was not born and raised here, but he is. And I often feel like I'm learning from him to learn about the culture and the history and just like I'm born and raised in Canada over again. So it's always important that we learn from our young children's journey and being able to reflect on our own. So thank you for your words, Vanessa, and very congratulations. So next up for the award recipients from the interior, I have Edna and Myrtle Johnson. Edna has worked as an EC and Cathy's Daycare in the Eskaton First Nations in Alkalai Lake for 18 years, sharing her love for craft, culturally inclusive songs, language and storytelling with the next generation. And Myrtle started Cathy's Daycare with her sister Cathy over 40 years ago. There is a whole generation of children in Eskaton who grew up under Myrtle's care. Her passion is teaching indigenous language and culturally inclusive learning to all, especially the youngest children because they soak up to the vocabulary so quickly. And this kind of life-changing impact is exactly why early childhood educators are so critical to supporting our families and communities. So congratulations. Thank you, Edna and Myrtle. Please share a few words with us. Hi, my name is Edna Johnson. From Eskaton First Nation, formerly at Alkalai Lake, DC, in the interior. First of all, I'd like to thank my husband, my family for that stood by me. Through difficult times. I'd like to thank Myrtle for being there with me. Me and Myrtle worked side-by-side for 23 years. And yeah, it's been rewarding. And I'd like to thank everybody for the acknowledgement. I'd like to thank our new manager, Karen. Karen Lipkev. Laughter is a great medicine. And thank you to Janissa for doing a great job and for the recognition that she's seen in us. And I'd also like to thank the parents who trust us with their children. And it's a great honor to teach their children. And yes, I just wanted the children to learn the language and the culture. We do drumming and stuff like that with the children. So I want them to learn all that because I think that language and culture need to be taught at the early age. I'd just like to thank everyone. Thank you for the acknowledgement. And thank you to Premier Hogan and Minister Chan. Thank you so much. Thank you. Quick stop. Thank you. Hi, my name is Myrtle Johnson. I'm honored to receive this 221 Child Care Award of Excellence. And I would really would like to thank my family, the one who supported me. And all the people who did the work with me 30 years. I know I did not do it alone. I had to have my support out there. And I had to learn my language all over again. I had to understand what I was trying to teach these children. I had to learn it again. And I was honored to be able to trust myself, to speak the language, to say, and the ang, waked and put open. Just feel good about myself. I can offer that to the children. And the children has learned and trusted me. And they learn the sing. And they learn the say the prayers. Because we do prayers at 9.30 every day with these children singing. And speaking the language, we used alphabet shapes, colors, numbers, and helping understand the sounds of our language. And I feel honored, like when I'm working with those children, get there and we're with me in this journey. It's a long journey. It's a lot of up and downs, a lot of, like, I call it obstacles and what you've been trying to teach and it couldn't be done. I would say English was hard language. But you also say that Shushop is a hard language too. So where does Chuckle? And I've learned that in this journey, it's a one I will never forget because it's given me, myself, what I had to give to the children. And those children were willing to learn and listen from me to know that I was teaching them. And that I know I have a little chief there and a little farmer or a little cowboy or we want them to have a good future. And I know I was thinking that I want for the future of each child and reason. I want them to be the best that they can be. And I know when the child thought back to me, one child told me, you know what? You know what? And I'm like, what? He said, you're a beam. I said, what? Yeah, you're a beam. So that's what I know I accept the stir furs. And you see, not close like the star. So it's, you're a beam. So I'm happy, you know, the child really thought of me that way. And they're trying to tell me how high or honored me. So I'd like to thank everyone here. Thank you all for being with me. To be accepted, you know, to be honored in this way. And I really feel good inside. I feel that, you know, being accepted into a bigger, bigger family of, you know, what's out there that some of them who just couldn't see, because we'll be soon doing our job here. And we're thinking mostly of that child. What am I giving that child? We see a gift that he needs, that I need a build up. If that gift couldn't be, oh, there are chains that, oh, I want them this way. But I want them to grow to be the person, you know, the best mother or father, or, you know, the best person out there. And they'll still support our people, or other people out there that need it from this child because they have their own kids over. And some are pretty talented and were singing, or they can speak, or they tell good things. So I'm honored, honored for that. Thank you all for being with me. Thank you for doing what you have to do out there, honoring people the way you do. And I thank the people that teach me this about being on video and learning, trusting others that this really feels good to be honored this way and be with you. Thank everyone for being here tonight. That's all I'd like to share. Thank you. Thank you so much to both of you for your very wise words and the stories that you're sharing with us. And thank you so much for touching many, many lives of families and children in our communities. It's incredible and it is life-changing work. So now I would like to welcome the recipient of the Vancouver Coastal Child Care Awards of Excellence and that is Danella Donnafriel. Danella is an excellent leader in the Power River area whose ability to spark joy in children, parents, caregivers, and her ability to influence others has no boundaries. She is an incredible expert and professional in this area. And even during the pandemic, she has been able to continue to nurture curiosity and an appreciation for nature in children under her care. She really has stepped up in the pandemic by providing care for children of essential services workers and coming up with new ways of offer safe quality childcare as soon as it was allowed. Congratulations and thank you for your incredible work during this very tough time and every single day throughout your career. That's welcome, Danella, to say a few words. Thank you, Katrina and good evening. It's an honor to be receiving this award and to be part of this ceremony, celebrating early childhood educators from across our province for their outstanding achievements. I'd like to thank my Director of Children's Services, Ocean Benzemang for the nomination and also to our community partners and families who also contributed to the nomination. Most of all, I would like to thank my incredible staff at the Cranberry Children's Center for their ongoing support. Our preschool program has thrived even during this pandemic and it has thrived due to the very skilled and dedicated staff that I'm fortunate to work alongside every day. My dream and vision for a nature-based outdoor preschool program has come together with many thanks from our families, staff and community. I'm truly inspired and I look forward to my continued work nurturing children and caring for them in a natural environment. Thank you again and good night. Thank you so much, Danella. This is great to hear and just to be able to meet with professionals like you across the province and hearing about the important work that you do and just being able to highlight the stories that you share with us and making sure that really we need to continue to talk about how early learning in here is so important to BC families, our community and our economy. So thank you. So now we're moving to the partnership awards. Child care is really rooted in partnerships and like I mentioned earlier, we could not build a new social program without the partnerships that we have from different levels of government, communities, professionals like you all and as we all work together to make sure we can bring the critical services to BC families. And we definitely need early childhood educators. You are at the heart of our childcare community and we need non-profits, school boards, other community partners, local indigenous communities, providers and everybody to be able to step up and help us create the childcare system family needs. Parent entering into partnerships with our childcare providers and early childhood educators when we entrust our children to your care and childcare providers partner with local governments are the community agencies, different levels of partnerships and governments to be able to help to enrich the lives of our children and promote healthy development. The Métis Nation BC and the Métis Family Connections Team are doing amazing work in this area. They're small but mighty team, they connect Métis families throughout BC with quality, inclusive, culturally relevant, early learning and care programs. And I could not be prouder of the work they're doing. And I'm very thankful for the work and the partnership that they have. So I would like now to invite Deborah Fisher, Colleen Hudson to say a few words on behalf of their team and their partnerships all together. That's welcome then. Thank you, Minister Chen. And first of all, just congratulations to everyone. And I feel so grateful to be part of quite an amazing team. I'm new to the early childhood education world and learning. And it's just like many of the children that we share and teach as Myrtle has said. So it's really important the partnership piece to us, to our nation and we are a community within a community. So we travel across the province as a nation and partner with many people that I've heard of from tonight. The Ministry of Children and Family Development in particular has shown their commitment to the Métis nation and to our families. And we'd like to recognize their generosity in doing so. Without people that are leaders in government and community programs like the Métis Family Connections Program wouldn't be possible. When we believe in people and we include them in our aspirations, it creates a momentum that makes great things happen. And I've heard all your stories tonight and your efforts and making all these things happen for our children and families. And it's truly inspirational. Recognizing the people that make these things happen and for our families every day is so important. The Métis Family Connections Navigators and the Métis Early Years team that is strong and mighty, they walk alongside of our families every day. And I would like to recognize them. Gina Coots, Shane Layden, Emily Killily, Kim Hodgson, Jocelyn Stewart, Lisa Lightning, Lynne Joshi, Charlene Waddell, Jessica Truman, Julie Ferris and Madeleine Green. And especially MNBC Minister of Education Deborah Fisher. Without her leadership and her heart, this work just wouldn't be possible. So it is about partnerships even with ourselves. So thank you so much and congratulations to everyone. Thank you, Minister Chen and congratulations to everybody that's here. It's a circle that is full of people with warm and beautiful hearts. And I wanna say I'm speaking to you tonight from the beautiful traditional lands of the Chinaha and the Sukwafnik people. And I would not be here tonight if it wasn't for Colleen and her incredible team at Métis Nation BC. Métis Nation BC recognizes the province and the Ministry of Children and Family Development in their commitment to Métis families. The Métis Family Connections Program is a partnership between Métis Nation and the province and together we are making a difference in our children's lives. We know how to look after our children and with the province's support, we are connecting families to programs and services in their communities and walking alongside of them in their journeys. Families are not alone and can reach out to their Métis Family Connections navigators across the province. And I'd like to share a beautiful quote with you from Jean Seltzer, the Elk Valley Métis Association President. Providing quality programs for young Métis children and families is extremely important. It is with deep sense of appreciation. We thank MNBC for their attention to those issues. We touch the future through the hearts of children. Our communities and our families are our future. And with the province's continued support and future, it will not only be brighter, but our Métis children will grow strong and proud and knowing who they are. Thank you very much. It's been an honor. Thank you so much and congratulations to your whole team. It's incredible partnership and great to learn about the work you are doing together. So next we are honoring the Kewasa Neighborhood House and the Capilano University Early Childhood Care and Education Program in North Vancouver. As part of their work to adapt to the pandemic, the Kewasa Neighborhood House partner with the Capilano EC Program to offer training for their support staff and educators on call. I have personally visited the Kewasa Neighborhood House many, many times. I've seen the incredible work they do to support children and families in our community. And this partnership really helped to build capacity among staff to offset potential staffing shortage due to the new pandemic protocols. This kind of initiative and innovative ways is exactly what inspires me every single day to keep working, listening and learning from partners and professionals like you all. So that together, we can find the best way to build the best universal inclusive child care system in Canada. So thank you to the teams at Kewasa Neighborhood House and Capilano University. I would like now to invite Mary Battle and Julia Black to say a few words about their award on behalf of their teams. Thank you, Minister Chen. And thank you to MCFD for hosting these awards to highlight the amazing work being done throughout the province. And congratulations to all the winners. I'm truly honored to be here with you. Kewasa Neighborhood House is located on the traditional unceded and occupied territories of the Squamish, Slewa Tooth and Musqueam Nations. And that's where I'm coming to you from tonight. We're extremely fortunate at Kewasa to have some of the very best early childhood educators and families to work with. And this has never been more evident than in the past 14 or 15 months. They've done an amazing job. Thanks to funding from the Ministry for Children and Family Development, we were able to keep our doors open in the Hastings Sunrise community of East Vancouver throughout the pandemic. And when it became evident, we were going to need more educators trained and ready to work. We naturally turned to Kaplanar University for help as many of their students had worked in our centers and we knew that the education provided by them was top notch. They created a special cohort for us and taught guiding young children to 30 students in the fall of 2020. And then earlier this year, they partnered with us again. This time with Kewasa's employment services programs and they offered the course to women who have experienced trauma and are working to overcome barriers in their life, possibly by starting a career in childcare. We're truly grateful to Kaplanar University for all of their support and believe they are very deserving of this award. Good evening. I'd like to acknowledge that I'm joining you virtually today from the ancestral and unceded territories of the Squamish Nation. As an educator and community member, it's important to me that I attend with great care to stories held in these lands and listen with an open heart and mind to the children, the families, and colleagues' voices with whom I work. Thank you, Minister Chan, for all the work that you continue to do to elevate early childhood education and the rights of our youngest citizens to attend high quality and accessible early years programs. I appreciate the honor of being included in the company of each of you today and all of the amazing work that I'm learning about in your work in your communities with children and families. The early childhood care and education program at Capelone University shares this recognition, of course, of Mary who just spoke at Coasta Neighborhood House. Thank you, Mary, for all that you have been doing. Several months into this pandemic, we began to see the toll it was taking on our early childhood programs. And through Mary's foresight of potential closures or educator absences due to COVID-19, Mary reached out to CapU and we partnered to virtually deliver a course that would support these important relationships between children, educators, and families. These new student educators embraced early childhood education, shared their joy for the program and inspired the delivery of two additional cohorts, as Mary mentioned with Coasta Neighborhood House. I would be remiss if I also didn't acknowledge our early childhood faculty at CapU and Adrienne Argent specifically who embraced this opportunity and was integral in inspiring many of these new students to continue their studies in our early childhood care and education diploma or degree programs and commit to the children and families with whom they each work. Importantly, I would also like to thank my family who support me and my children who inspire me every day to be a better educator and commit to this journey to advocate for early childhood education for all children and their families. Thank you again. Oh my, and congratulations to each of you. Thank you so much, Mary and Julia, and it is just so incredible to hear your passion just through your words and of course through your daily work as well. And thank you so much for your team for putting your emotion, your commitment and your passion for this very important sector. I really appreciate the work you do. And of course, congratulations. This is the time to celebrate and I do wanna show a video. As I mentioned earlier, it is a great news that we're hearing the federal government now recognizes the importance of childcare. And finally, we're gonna have a national childcare plan after years of advocacy from a lot of you who are also joining us here today. So I would like you to all join me in watching a special video greeting from the federal minister of family, children and social development, Minister Ahmed Hussein. Hello everyone. As the federal minister of families, children and social development, I'm proud to recognize the exceptional achievements made by individuals, organizations and local governments in the delivery of early learning and childcare in British Columbia. In any year, these are well worth recognizing, but given the challenges that the past year has brought, celebrating these achievements is even more important. All across Canada, including in British Columbia, families saw their routines disrupted with many forced to find a new normal in these uncertain times. Almost overnight, early learning and childcare professionals had to change their methods and activities, changes that took tremendous creativity, resilience and commitment. This year, many children and their parents found heroes in their communities, people who have gone above and beyond to support families. Your commitment helped build the foundation children need to have the best possible start in life. And your dedicated work has had such a positive impact on many families in your communities. Thank you for making Canadian families' lives better and certainly a little brighter. Particularly during such a challenging year. My sincerest congratulations. That was really great to hear from Minister Hussend and thanks to Minister Hussend for taking the time to send this video for our childcare providers and professionals who are celebrating today. And like I mentioned, we have been working closely with our federal counterpart, especially since they announced their budget this year to make sure after the foundation that we've built in DC during the past three and a half years, we're in a great position to be able to utilize the federal funding and support to bring affordability, to bring the services that family really count on and also to support early childhood educators and the professionals as fast as possible in BC. So we're excited about those great announcements and we're working very closely. We're knocking on their doors every single day and hoping that we'll be able to bring those services to BC families and also to support our early childhood educators in BC. So I think now it's really important to continue with our award ceremony. And for many people, the pandemic has highlighted how critical childcare is for our families, communities and economy. I repeat that all the time because it is so important, we continue with our movement to highlight the importance of this sector. But like others, like you and me, even though we've known this for a long time, it's still important to take a moment to recognize all the childcare providers who are celebrating 40 years of service. That's an incredible commitment. That's the kind of dedication and longevity that is so rare these days in any profession, especially in this very special sector that actually requires so much commitment and passion to be able to put into the work every single day. So thank you so much and congratulations on reaching this very impressive milestone. So the next award is the Lifetime Achievement Award. And the award will go to Magdalena Amestika who lives in Kelowna. And I hope it's okay to share your age. Magdalena, and I hope you're getting your name correct. I'm so sorry if my pronunciation is not fully correct. But she is 88 years young and still working full-time as a child's play therapist. And for many of the children she works with, this is the only time they feel safe and feel the unconditional love, respect and the freedom to speak or make noises. She is caring and really lift our children up from their negative thoughts or behavior issues into positive outcome. She mentors with ostensity, compassion and love. Her coworkers frequently turn to her for reassurance and support because of her years of experience and also because who she is with her passion, her service, her dedication to the sector. So congratulations and that's welcome. Magdalena, and please share a few words of wisdom about your career. I'm so looking forward to your speech. That's welcome. Well, I am not used to speak in public but I will try my best. I have been working with children for 68 years. I think that that has been a huge privilege in my life. I do not know why I have been given that gift. But first of all, I want to thank Canada for giving us refugee status that saved my children on my own life. And also to this beautiful British Columbia who had decided in its wisdom to award me. And I'm looking at the lake of Okanara in front of me. And my heart is filled with gratitude towards the sea of people who is sharing this beautiful land, their unceded territory with all of us. To the people who nominated me out of kindness and a generous heart, to my co-worker past and present who have shared with me moments of joy, moments of sadness and who have loved on my accent, we love together and also love to my limited knowledge of social media and the use of computers. That has been an awesome experience for me to the many Indigenous and Métis people who have kind of accepted me just the way I am. I have best friends, the people from Sixth Incarnation, from Peaconey, from the Stony Reserve. They have been my teachers. I didn't need to go to the university to learn so much about their reach. I'm beautiful, cultured, their values and beliefs. The fact that they have accepted me with all my weaknesses and some little strength that I have has meant so much to me, to my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have so much faith on me, to my dogs, who have taught me how to be a better human. But, you know, my main source of gratitude goes to the hundreds and hundreds of children that I have had the privilege to be with for so many years, more than 68 years. And once I was asked, is the noise on the halls bothering you when you are in your sessions? I said no. When we go into our office and we close the door, that is our world. There is this flow of energy, flow of love. It is the only time in which I have felt reality, the so-called unconditional love. It exists, and it exists in the life of our children. They never complain. I could be talking that day until the day after tomorrow about them, that I will tell you just a time in which I was asked to see a child right after office hours, because he needed to leave it. And he came, he was late, he was late, he was cold, because it was winter in Alberta, and he came and he looked so lost, so sad. I invited him to come, I showed him everything that I had in my beautiful place, therapy room. I chose to play with sand. I made this beautiful, beautiful community with trees, with flowers, with animals, with people. I could start to walk around the sand box. And as he was walking and looking, according to what he had done, he started to sing, what a wonderful world. That is one little instant of the gift that it has been given to me. And I know that probably the only thing plus something else that I can give the children is my love, understanding, full acceptance. My full presence from the moment that they come to me until the moment that they leave. I have learned that from them. And to them, I feel this gratitude and it's almost exploding in my heart as I talk to you. If I have taken more than one minute, my apology, but I could be talking until the day after tomorrow about children. They are my heroes, they are my heroes. They are our teachers, but then listen to them. I am so glad, so glad, Katrina, that you are talking again and again about the enhancement of programs for children in this beautiful and progressive province. Thank you, thank you to all of you. All of you, all the people who have received this award, all the nominees for what you are doing for children. Thank you very much to all my relations here and there, everywhere, to my ancestors, to my mother, who inspired me. Thank you. Thank you so much, Magdalena. I have to say, when you were talking about how children just shows us unconditional love and I can just totally see the love from your speech, from yourself, and I'm pretty sure a lot of us who are listening in right now are thinking about the children who gives us their unconditional love. I'm thinking about my son, and I know many of you who are joining us here today are thinking about the little children in your lives who we learn so much from. So thank you so much for your wise words. I hope that when the pandemic is over, I really would hope that we can have an in-person celebration, we'll make it up. I would love to visit you in Kelowna to learn more from you, and in exchange, I'll teach you how to use social media. As many of you know that I'm very active on social media, so thank you for your contributions and your words are very, very powerful and really thank you for changing many children's lives. So, okay, that was a really amazing speech and we have so much more celebrations that we have to share today. So next I would love to go to the Innovation Awards. I want to introduce Tara McKinnon, who is representing the early years team at the office of the Wood-Sawaitan, the recipient of the Child Care Award of Excellence for Innovation. Their program serves 52 families, representing the Wood-Sawaitan, other indigenous refugee and settlers families in the Smithers area, but like many childcare providers, the pandemic has forced them to adapt their programs to be able to adjust, to make adjustments along the way. So they started offering parents support groups twice a week with the Heditaria Chiefs, which helped the parents to learn about with Sawaitan protocols, traditionals, languages, culture, and passing this down to their children and families. They also provide circle time preschool over Zoom and one-to-one parents support and the results have been so inspiring. The families are really better connected with one another to fight the challenges of the pandemic and to local social support and also have a greater sense of belonging to the nation. So congratulations to Tara and to the whole early years team at the office of the Wood-Sawaitan. Tara, would you please share a few words on behalf of your team? Hi, Dini, Zaka, Sait, Skye, Sait, Saiso, Sait, Tara McKinnon, Saitista. Our team is honored to receive this award, our team is truly passionate about giving our children the solid foundation for learning socially and academically and preparing them for the biggest transition, which is kindergarten. Even more important, our team strives to teach our children our wetsuit and culture to know that when they're older that they belong somewhere and learning our language to just one word at a time, one phrase at a time, taking them out on the land. This award just, I've been thinking about this for the last few weeks. You never know, like this isn't like our whole team but this isn't work for us. It's just something that we do. It's something that we strive. Watching those little ones thrive in preschool and transition to kindergarten. And then some of them have graduated that have been in our program and it's just amazing to see, to look back and just look at that strong foundation that was planted in that child's life in their early years. Our goal is to ensure that our children go grow into a successful, confident, strong young adults and we've seen that already because our children are a feature. I would like to share a quote from our Denise Namox, John Ridsdale. He's a big part of an advocate for our program. So he has quoted, with the input of our elders, chiefs and parents, our children are setting their course for the future with love, kindness, pride, confidence and inclusiveness. And when I hear that and read that, I just, we hear that every day. We want our children to learn the wetsuit and culture as they grow. They know they belong somewhere all the time. Again, thank you. We're thrilled to receive this reward and we're just on cloud nine still. Auaza. Thank you so much, Tara. It just reminds me how I met a family and the mom shared with me how her children is learning their traditional languages that she's never got the opportunity to learn during her childhood. And that just really empowers her whole family and lifting her whole family up as they learn from their own children and suit early learning and care services that they received. And those are the stories and like yours. Thank you so much for sharing the words and the quote with us that there's so much we need to continue to learn together as a community. And just like a lot of our speakers have shared, we're learning from each other. And I'm so proud and be able to work with a lot of professionals like you to continue this journey. So now we're moving on to the leadership awards. I would really like to welcome Kili Freeman, the recipient of the Early Care and Learning Emergent Leader Award. Kili is the founder of the Nanaimo Innovation Academy and is a great partner and advocate for quality and inclusive childcare in Nanaimo. Last fall, she organized free information sessions for parents and children about sexual health and consent to help encourage healthy dialogue about private body parts and touching. She also started a healthy eating project to promote nutrition amongst children and families. So congratulations for your innovative ideas for you to be able to show your leadership and bring your leadership to bring positive influence to others around you. So I would like to welcome you, Kili, to say a few words. Thank you, Minister Chen, and congratulations to everyone here tonight. Three years ago, I didn't ever see myself running a daycare. I didn't know this was gonna be my path, but I'm so happy it is. I had two small children and I firsthand learned the struggles of looking for high quality childcare without having a huge wait list or and that was affordable as well. So I said to my husband, I guess we're gonna have to open a daycare now. And so it's been a journey, a really fantastic journey that I embarked on with very little knowledge of how to do it. And so I'm really thankful to the guidance and support of many people, many, many people. First, I wanna thank my staff at Nanaimo Innovation Academy. They are incredible. They're leaders in their profession. They are collaborative. They are creative. I get emotional because they're just so amazing. They really put their heart into everything they do. I've also appreciate that the government has committed to an increase in the wage enhancement as I feel that it is truly important to take care of people that are taking care for little ones. And I myself have committed to my staff to pay them $30 an hour. That is something that I think is truly important. The next is our partners. We've partnered with many community partnerships. They're key and important. The help of the Child Development Center in Nanaimo with the help of Pacific care with our licensing officers at VEHA with Vancouver Island University and their ECE program. We've been able to get support and come up with really collaborative ideas and innovative projects. Our parents, they are incredible. Not only do they trust us with their children every day, but they are integral to the community that we were developing at our daycare. They bring about initiatives like one parent is starting a bike to work, or bike to school week, and it's created a team for us. We have dozens of volunteers that come to help roll out new sod for our play field. We get families that are starting fundraisers for us. So it's really, they're a really key part of what we're doing. And then lastly, of course, the children. Ah, they inspire us to do the best that we possibly can every day. And I agree, they are our teachers. They teach us way more than we can ever teach them. So thank you for this. Thank you so much, Kili. And I just feel like I've learned so much from all of you here tonight. And a lot of the common ground that we share is how our passion comes from our personal experience, whether as mothers or families, who knows the importance of childcare. And then a lot of you have brought your passion to others and sharing your passion and love with others around you. So thank you so much for your incredible work. Now how we have the early care and learning leadership award, which goes to Maven Land in Berlin. Go over 10 years ago, Maven was on the verge of closing down, but now it's become a cornerstone of the community. And actually in fact, this is one of the largest childcare facility in Canada that Maven Land was voted a employer of the year in 2017. And their commitment to ongoing training and professional development for their staff is incredible. So congratulations, Maven. I would like to welcome Kili Henderson to say a few words on behalf of Maven Land. Thank you, Minister Chen. Congratulations to all the award recipients and nominees. It's such a privilege to work alongside all of you. And I look forward to meeting those of you who haven't had the opportunity to meet yet. It is such an honor to be recognized in this leadership category. This award is an affirmation of my deep connection and love for the work that I am so privileged to do and for my belief in our society's vision and core values. I would not be in this position accepting this award without the support and encouragement of some great leaders and supporters around me. I'd like to thank my family first for believing in me and for motivating me and for being patient with me. You've all embraced Maven Lane and I sincerely thank you for that. It gives me great pleasure to accept this award on behalf of our entire Maven Lane community as it takes the hands of my knee to achieve our success. I want to thank our board of directors, our leadership team, our staff team, our members and our children for your continued collaboration, community spirit and vision. This award acknowledges our dedication to providing the best care and education for children, to our commitment for developing high professional standards, to our passion for creating that sense of belonging and sense of community for everyone who walks through our doors daily. Hand on heart, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to lead this organization and I will continue being a voice for raising the bar for affordable, high quality childcare and improved compensation for our educators. We're making huge strides in our field and it's also exciting. I want to take a moment to recognize, congratulate and thank all of you who have been playing an active role in this. So thank you. Thank you so much Holly and congratulations to the whole team and Maven Land. This is a wonderful achievement that you've achieved and I'm so glad that you're continuing to grow and thank you for the years and years of services that you're bringing to VC families. So next up is the Inclusive Practices Award. We cannot have an inclusive universal childcare system until we have inclusion included as the core of our system. A system where every child regardless of background, social economics status ability feels welcomed and supported to be able to fully participate in childcare programming. So this year's recipient of the award is the Hudson Child Care Society in Vancouver. This not for profit definitely goes above and beyond to care for children with support needs, children with support needs are prioritized for enrollment and are also exempt from aging out of their space. They also keep these lows below market average while keeping their staff wages in the top 85th percentile. They also space share childcare spots to try to help as many local families as possible. That is incredible. So now I would like to welcome Thomas Overstorm to say a few words on behalf of the organization. Thank you so much, Minister Chen. I want to acknowledge that I joined you from the unceded traditional territories of the Squamish, Mosquem, and Saywardtooth peoples. I'm delighted and honored to accept this award on behalf of Hudson Child Care Society. Inclusion is something that I'm personally very passionate about, something that comes from the families who work with. Families of children with extra support needs are often marginalized, overstretched, and undersupported. And we strive to shift that narrative for the families we touch. We're a small organization working with limited resources and I'm very proud of our dedication and creativity in finding ways to support as many families as possible. We do a lot with a little and we're very thankful for this acknowledgement of the hard work that we do. Our success is a result of many people, including our parent board of directors, our director Kelly Hahn and the whole management team, Maryam Bennett of BC Center for Ability, whom we often lean on for advice and guidance. And of course, our team of childcare workers who daily help children build trust and security in the relationships with other children and adults. Again, thank you so much and congratulations to all other winners. Thank you so much, Thomas, and also congratulations to Hudson Child Care Society for your ongoing work. I've had the opportunity to engage with some of your parents and families and it's always incredible to be able to learn from local childcare organizations and families. And this year, we really had so many outstanding nominations. I would also like to recognize the Child Development Center in Surrey, who are receiving an honorable mention this year for their work to support children with support needs. There are so many of you there that are doing the incredible work and I just want to really take this opportunity to thank everybody and congratulate everyone who are working so hard to make sure we bring more inclusive early learning and care services to all children and families. And COVID-19 has really created so many challenges and you have all risen to every one of the challenges and when above and beyond. And we thank you for your tireless commitment to caring for your dedication to making your workspace safe despite all the fear and uncertainties and this is really an ever-changing situation. Thank you for so much for being so flexible and continue to be able to pivot and to provide flexibility into your care. So next up, we have the first ever Perseverance Award for this year to honor a childcare team that has persevered through all the challenges the pandemic has thrown their way over the last year and continue to deliver quality and inclusive childcare and early learning services. And I'm so happy to be able to share that the recipient of this year's award is the SFU Child Care Society. Oh, thank you, Minister Chen and congratulations to everybody. I'm Rachel Day, I'm the Executive Director SFU Child Care Society. Our amazing educators at the Morningside 3-5 program. So I'm receiving this award for them. On behalf of everybody at SFU Child Care, I'm Board of Directors and Simon Fraser University. I'm pleased to accept this new award for perseverance. We're very privileged at SFU Child Care to work in such a beautiful place on top of Burnaby Mountain. And I would like to respectfully acknowledge we work, play and learn on the unseeded territories of the Coast's Salish peoples, including the Sailor Tooth, Kikwetlam, Squaharmish and Muscoom Nations. This award means a great deal to our team, especially this year's. It really exemplifies the passion and resilience of our educators at the society who have managed to continue despite the challenges we have all faced. We've been persistent in our commitment to our families to create joyful, nurturing learning environments dedicated to our core values, relationships and curriculum. Even when the pandemic gave us a reason not to do that, what makes this award so special is the nominees were from parents. We are truly grateful that they recognise and value our work and entrust us with the health, safety and care of their children. We have very much felt their support throughout this past year and hope the days ahead find us spending time again inside our programmes with them and in our outdoor spaces. While the pandemic has not allowed us to join together in person, we've been really committed to meeting regularly through our virtual spaces, such as tonight. We endured when it was tough and maintained strong connections in a variety of ways. This last year has challenged us all to be courageous and vulnerable, but has also given us hope that our early childhood educators are now being recognised for their worth as essential and integral professionals in our communities. So I'm honoured to lead our amazing team of educators and staff at S&P Child Care Society. I want to congratulate once again our Morningside 3-5 programme for this award. I know there will be some very excited children in your programme who will proudly share what this award means to them for their friends and families. So thank you very much, Minister Chen. I look forward to seeing you in person soon. Thank you so much, Rachel. Rachel Day has been a real leader for bringing together the parent community and the child care community at SFU and the university community. And I've personally seen that of how local families really appreciate the work that your centre, your team, your members, the early childhood educators do. You have really been helping to ease an anxiety for parents during such a stressful time. And I hear those stories personally as many families live in my own constituency in Burnaby and I just cannot thank you enough for the incredible work that you do and so happy to learn that you are the SFU child care is the recipient of this year's very special award. And really, congratulations to everybody. We do have a lot of people to recognise, but I also want to recognise that the early years programme at the Whistler-Wardorf School, they are being recognised with an honourable mention in the Perseverance Award category this year as well. And I would like now to turn it back over to my colleague Mitzi Ding, Minister of Children and Family Development, to share a few words and really highlight how this pandemic has hit a lot of child care providers and families in our communities. But thanks to all of you, your passion, your dedication, that we are now seeing the light of the end of the tunnel. So that's welcome, Minister Ding. Thank you so much, Katrina. And it's just been so inspiring hearing everybody this evening. I've been really moved by hearing everybody's words. And as the Premier had said, you know, our early childhood educators are the workforce behind the workforce. And the pandemic has really shone a light on how important our early care and learning system is. And we need to keep building that system. And we're so fortunate in having Katrina putting all of her effort into building the system for us. But we do have another award that I'm very honoured to actually introduce to everybody this evening. And that's the Lenora Pritchard Award. Lenora was a much-beloved Indigenous child care advisor with the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society. She was a member of the Musqueam First Nation of Vancouver and the Chimshim First Nation of Metla-Katla, BC. Lenora worked tirelessly as an early childhood educator in various Indigenous communities and travelled extensively to share her knowledge with others. She once said that her most memorable project was working for the Lake Babine Nation where she created a 32-seat child care centre. She died in a tragic accident in 2009. And this award honours her legacy. And it's especially poignant this year because her legacy has come full circle. Receiving the Lenora Pritchard Award of Excellence tonight is Shauna Alec, early childhood education director for the Lake Babine Nation. Over the past nine years, Shauna has developed and overseen multiple programmes and services that benefit children and families, quite literally building on the legacy Lenora left behind. Among many other activities, Shauna runs an outreach programme that has helped to connect families in the remote communities of Tatchett and Fort Babine to early years programmes like Strong Start BC. And she has built two early years programmes in these communities. Congratulations and thank you to Shauna. We know that you'll continue to have a lasting impact on your community through your tremendous dedication to children, youth and families. So Shauna, we'd love to hear a few words from you now. Thank you. Adi, Masaicho, Minister Katrina Chen and Honourable Mitzi Dean. First and foremost, congratulations to all the fellow recipients. My hands are up with love and respect for all you have and will continue to accomplish for the children and the families in your communities. I am very honoured to be accepting such a prestigious award, the Lenora Pritchard Child Care Award of Excellence. I am grateful to see her legacy in the childcare fields being honoured. Lenora Pritchard worked with Lake Babine Nation for several years. In fact, her first, the first day care that is on the Nanuten territory was started by Lenora herself. One of many which services quality care to 32 children and their families to this day. As the early childhood education director for Lake Babine Nation, I am very proud to be representing my nation's children and families. Lake Babine Nation consists of five communities, Wionee, Tatchett, Nitoats, Donald's Landing and Waddat. Having such a strong foundation built in Wionee, I knew that we needed the same for our nation and its entirety. Thank you for the Indigenous Early Years Funding Program. This opens up the door so we could provide equal rights and quality childcare services and programs to the beautiful and growing nation and the three of our major communities. Finally, I would like to thank my fearless leads, Montgomery Paul Matier and Gary Kluge for working alongside me to build up the programs to what they are today. A great, also a great big thank you to my strong team of early childhood educators to cover a massive geographical area to facilitate top quality care to the remote communities. I am truly blessed to live out my dream working with my nation. I was raised in and to be able to provide a safe and fun space for our children, for our future generation. I look forward to watching each of our young people grow to their full potential and it makes my heart happy knowing that I, Shauna May, alongside my amazing colleagues have a part in that succession plan. I'm a side child for acknowledging the work that I am doing, dream big with a hard work and perseverance, everything is possible. I would say thank you very much. Thank you so much Shauna. So wonderful to hear from you and to just see the legacy building. And just thank you so much for sharing your story and congratulations again to you. Thank you to everybody, we're getting to the close now. I really appreciate all of you taking your time this evening. Know that everybody has busy schedules and we've all had enough time on the screen and with Zoom but it's been really wonderful to have such a collection of inspiring people here together this evening and sharing and learning from each other as well and such moving words. And just the passion has been really striking. I really hear the commitment from everybody here to the children in your care. It shines like a beacon, like a bright light. And I just appreciate that you go above and beyond to support the needs of the children that you care for and thinking about the generations ahead and future children as well. And your commitment makes such a big difference to children and to their parents as well. I know it gives families peace of mind that they can drop their kids off with you at the start of their day and know that their child is safe, that their child is included, that they're happy and that they're learning a load of really important stuff as well. You're all just setting such an incredible example. You're all innovating, you're working in partnership, you're really setting the standard for how we can move forward with childcare, with early learning care. And so I just wanna say thank you so much for your hard work and your commitment as well. And a reminder, just to say happy childcare month. And now it's my honor to turn things back over to Katrina for her final thoughts. And I will say good night to you all. Thank you so much, Minister Dean. So really congratulations everyone on behalf of Premier John Horgan, Minister Dean and a very grateful province. And I would add on behalf of all BC families, including families like my single parents, immigrant families with diverse needs, your work lift us up every single day. I could not do this work. I do without the support that my son has had from early childhood educators and before and after school care. It's just your work really changes people's life every single day. So thank you for caring for our children and families. Have a good night. But before you go, we're gonna do a group photo. So please keep your camera on for those who would like to join a group photo and we'll do a final group photo before we end this event. Thank you so much.