Village of Clyde residents came together April 28 to recognize two of their most community-minded citizens at the 36th annual Ag 500, put on by the Clyde and District Ag Society.
Every seat at the Clyde Community Hall was spoken for as Bryan and Shauna Nyal were honoured with the Volunteer of the Year Award for their tireless efforts to make the village a better place to live.
The couple said that to receive the recognition was great, but it came as a huge surprise.
“It’s shocking that we were recognized,” said Bryan, after the announcement was made.
Last year’s winners, Jim and Darcy Rau presented the Nyals with this year’s award, as is tradition.
“One of the reasons Darcy and I find this village so amazing is the volunteers, because there is so many of them. It’s been 36 years and we still have a whole handful of volunteers. Every year there is at least a dozen nominees, and for a town this size where there’s more dogs than people, that’s actually pretty good … It’s really quite amazing,” Jim joked in the lead-up to the announcement of the winners.
Darcy went over some of the work the Nyals have done in their days as volunteers. She pointed out they’ve worked many casinos, served on school council, been president of the enhancement society and treasurer of the Gators Swim Club, helped out at Easter teas and were instrumental in getting a “buddy bench” for the school.
They’ve also donated money, coached hockey, kept score, planned concessions, organized parents, meetings, country markets, ball tournaments and hockey cabarets, said Darcy.
“They’ve spent back-breaking hours installing new basketball hoops for the school. They have tied skates, patted heads and dried tears. They have encouraged, inspired and threatened,” she joked. “They have made pies, flipped burgers, set-up, taken down and cleaned up.”
“Our 2018 Volunteers of the Year are a couple who constantly volunteer their time for the benefit of Clyde and our surrounding community.”
The Nyals remained modest and didn’t have a lot to say in the moment.
“Thank you very much, I really don’t know what to say,” said Shauna. “Thank you.”
“I’d like to say that we’re very proud to be a part of this community, and this floored me. It caught me totally off-guard. Shauna did 99.9 per cent of what they talked about,” said Bryan, adding he was very honoured and very proud to be associated with the people on the wall, where pictures of past Volunteers of the Year hang.
“We love to see our community thrive and grow and be strong. That’s why we do what we do. We hope our community stays this way so our kids have a community to grow up in.”
