UNITY — At the final showcase for Unity Music Festival, the first in-person event in two years, the committee awarded their selection for volunteer of the year, recognizing committee member Vicki Orobko.
In the presentation made at the live event, festival committee presenters said, “It gives us great pleasure to present our 2022 volunteer of the year award to Vicki Orobko."
Orobko grew up on a farm, with her mom, outside of Quill Lake. Music was all around – everyone could sing or dance and someone could always play the piano or guitar.
The presentation also outlined, “Vicki moved to Unity in 1997 to begin her teaching career. She had no idea what a music festival was all about but remembers going to a final performance and hearing Amy and Hannah Keller sing 'The Tree Song.' Actually, the whole program was unbelievable, and she thought - so much talent that was so well-supported in the community. Over the years as a teacher, she remembered kids coming and going during festival week – those competitors were always brave, proud and inevitably our top students and that’s no accident.
“One day, Evelyn Weeks called and asked Vicki if she would serve on the house committee. Vicki suspects it was because she had keys to get into the high school as getting in was always a problem. (Those were the days of getting all those poinsettias from the Scott Greenhouse delivered to the gym on a cold winter day.) Your suspicions were right, Vicki – it was the keys.
“Vicki thought she was in for a year. Well, the more she learned, the more she wanted to be involved. She started going to meetings and just wanted them to go faster so ran for president, unopposed. Vicki worked with the committee dealing with the grand piano when the arts council folded. Then when Isabel Anderson contacted her to financially support the festival with the Jimmie and Ethel Anderson Award, another big project began."
Orobko has, in past years, entered her Grade 7 class. Always an experience, she comments.
Orobko begged Diane Neil to take her son Zenon on as a student even though he was only five years old. His sisters Ainsley and Molly also started taking piano lessons and all three sang with Chrystal Fawell and Bari Bertoia, experiencing voice and musical theatre. Orobko loved watching them have an opportunity to be involved. They continue to enjoy music. Music was an enjoyable complement to their school education and Nana enjoyed coming every year for a week’s worth of entertainment.
Orobko loved acting as MC at the final performances and seeing the children being recognized and rewarded. Another one of her many memories involves the week she spent trying to keep track of a wandering adjudicator.
“When I think of my involvement, it’s one nervous giggle after another," Orobko says. "I honestly had no idea what I was doing – ever. I just signed up, jumped in and flew by the seat of my pants.
"The constant in it all were the wonderful women who believed I could do stuff. Shirley Parkinson, Eileen Pool, Diane Neil, Chrystal Fawell, and Sandra Glassford."
The committee closed with these words, “Vicki is presently on our house committee, and yes, Vicki, it was the keys, but we got so much more.”
