Casera Community Awards for Leadership and Enrichment were proudly presented during our 70th Annual General Meeting, held via videoconference on April 19, 2022.
Kyle Mager received the Casera Community Leadership Award for lending his time and energy to keep Transcona looking its best. The East Winnipeg Sports Association was presented with a Casera Community Enrichment Award for enhancing Winnipeg’s recreational opportunities. The St. Vital Museum was given a Casera Community Enrichment Award for its efforts to preserve our shared heritage.
2022 Casera Community Leadership Award | Kyle Mager
A community is only as strong as the people who stand up and make themselves available when there’s work to be done. Kyle Mager is one of those exceptional, eager-to-pitch-in community leaders whose efforts are mostly unseen but always valued.
When a group of Transcona parishioners was cleaning up the neighbourhood around their church, Kyle, who wasn’t a member, volunteered to help them. His afternoon of helpfulness soon turned into an enthusiastic pursuit to help keep Transcona’s neighbourhoods looking good. Since then, he’s quietly stepped up to help keep the streets free of litter, back lanes empty of large, unsightly items, and roadsides clean of trash.
When the call went out to assist Trees Winnipeg with protecting the city’s urban forest, Kyle raised his hand and helped plant trees in Transcona. This kind of pride in the community makes Kyle an invaluable neighbourhood leader.
Kyle lends his time and energy to keeping Transcona looking its best. He does it neither for accolades nor attention. Instead, his enthusiasm and effort are simply intended to make a difference in the community he calls home.
2022 Casera Community Enrichment Award | East Winnipeg Sports Association
What began as a dream to fulfill the recreational needs of eastern Winnipeg has become Buhler Recreation Park, a vibrant and vital community destination.
In 2003, committed volunteers formed the non-profit East Winnipeg Sports Association (EWSA) to deliver on the community’s recreational requirements. As a result, the organization helped develop Buhler Recreation Park, a 140-acre multi-purpose recreational facility in south Transcona.
Since then, EWSA has directed and managed the Park, which has become a city-wide destination for sports and all-season recreation. The Park includes eight softball diamonds, a baseball diamond, four soccer fields, a toboggan hill, and trails for walking and cycling. Thousands of visitors participate in recreational pursuits year-round, and the venue’s high-performance features make it attractive for municipal, provincial, and national sports programs.
One of the keys to the Parks development is retaining and adding to the natural environment. Existing vegetation and foliage, and the planting of more trees, create a habitat for wildlife and birds and a framework for future development. By balancing the community’s recreational needs with the environment, EWSA ensures a healthy future for the Park and its users.
2022 Casera Community Enrichment Award | St. Vital Museum
The St. Vital Historical Society and the St. Vital Museum are essential community resources — focused on the past and preserving it for the future.
The St. Vital Historical Society works hard to conserve the community’s rich history, dating back to the 1820s. The Society’s St. Vital Museum leads the charge to discover, collect, and preserve the stories and artifacts of Winnipeg’s south-central neighbourhoods, including Elm Park, Glenwood, Pulberry, and River Park South.
The Historical Society was formed in 1994 and incorporated a year later. With a growing abundance of archival materials, the Society needed a place to store, conserve, and display historical treasures. In 2008, the St. Vital Museum opened in a heritage building at 600 St. Mary’s Road — a former police and fire station constructed in 1914.
Today, the Museum tells the tales of pioneering luminaries such as Louis Riel, Victor Mager, and Abraham Guay through photos, artifacts, exhibits, and curated research materials. The Museum houses a 1920 LaFrance pumper truck and a 1939 Fargo pumper truck and displays several gold records donated by Jim Kale, an original member of the Guess Who.