麻豆传媒

KIPLING — Over the years, Kipling’s Pat Jackson has volunteered her time to various causes, in addition to serving on town council for two decades. With her long list of community involvement, Jackson was nominated for a King Charles III Coronation Medal. However, a storm prevented her from receiving the award during an event in Stoughton on Feb. 1.

“In order to be down there on time, we would have had to leave nine o’clock in the morning for sure, and the highway was still closed,” Jackson explained, adding that she was visiting family near Regina at the time. “It was around one before they opened it.”

Deciding to hunker down instead of risk the roads, Jackson contacted Member of Parliament Dr. Robert Kitchen’s office to advise that she could not attend the ceremony where he was bestowing the medals to recipients from the Souris-Moose Mountain riding.

Since Jackson and fellow Kipling resident Mona Lynn Stender were both unable to attend, Dr. Kitchen will travel to Kipling at a future date to deliver the medals in person.

Eager to share council experience

Jackson has been mayor of Kipling for two decades and was vocal that she would not run again. However, in a last-minute decision, she submitted her nomination once again at 3:57 p.m. on Oct. 9 as no other mayoral submissions had been received in last fall’s municipal election. 

One area Jackson would like to continue with is mentoring those new to the world of municipal government as a way to give back the knowledge that she has gained during her years around the council table.

“People who get into municipal government generally don’t have a clue what’s involved,” Jackson said. It is helpful because back when I first started, I remember that I had several people on that council with experience, and it was very comfortable to go and ask questions, and that’s the way I want it to be—that people can phone and say, ‘here’s an issue that’s going on. What would you suggest as some ways of handling it?’”

Currently, she’s also part of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association board, which provides opportunities for collaboration with other communities around the province.

“There’s a lot of work with other with other communities to advocate for things that our communities need,” said Jackson. “And in some cases, to advocate for some things to be eliminated that are causing roadblocks to our ability to function.”

Again, Jackson found herself fielding queries for her advice—this time, from communities in the SUMA world.

“I’ve been getting calls from various communities asking, ‘How do I do this? Where do I find that?’ so I offered to go on the peer mentorship committee, and it is just exactly what it says. We try to mentor our peers on the committee,” she said. “We’ve got some people who are on councils, and we’ve got some people who are the CAOs and a couple of them are retired, but all of them have some years of work behind them to be able to say, ‘well, here’s a suggestion.’ We can’t tell another community what to do, but we can say, ‘I know from what I’ve done and what a few of the other others have told me, this may work just to solve an issue,’ and I can connect people.”

Jackson is committed to fulfilling her term as mayor, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

“It all is health dependent,” she said. “So long as both of us (my husband and myself) are in good health, I will do my utmost to fulfil my four years. The caveat to that is if either one of us starts to have severe health issues that require that we concentrate more on that, it may come that there has to be another decision made, but having agreed to take it on, I’ll do my darndest to do it for the for the full-time commitment.”

Always the community booster, Jackson hinted that Kipling has a lot coming up this summer.

“I’m going to give you a teaser—keep your ears peeled and your eyes peeled for activities,” she said. “Kipling is going to be a busy place this summer!”

Longtime volunteer

Larry and Pat Jackson have a strong history with the Kipling and District Lion’s Club spanning four decades in total. Like many service clubs across the country, membership is down a little, but the Kipling Lions are still roaring strong.

“When Larry joined here 40 years ago, there were well over 30 people in it,” Jackson recalls. “Now it’s 20, we are certainly among a handful of the elders. And there are fewer and fewer young people. We’re lucky here that there are a handful of them that are in their early ‘40s, that’s young, so ours is not quite disintegrating yet.”

Service in their church and school has also been rewarding volunteer pursuits.

“When our kids were in school, I was involved in Band Parents because the band program is in part funded by the families of the kids who take the course; the musical training, and that’s a fundraiser that they do to help raise money for the band programs,” Jackson explained.