The Heart of Excellence Awards will occur on April 28th at Studio Bell, the National Music Centre. These awards are Calgary’s LGBTQ+ Awards that honour community volunteerism within the LGBTQ+ community over the past year. The idea for the awards came directly from volunteers asking Calgary Outlink to officially recognize the efforts of people in our community that make living in Calgary a continually better and more inclusive city.
Calgary once had an awards ceremony, the Speak Sebastian awards from 1991 to 1993. These awards were tied to the CJSW LGBTQ+ radio show, Speak Sebastian. It is fitting that the Heart of Excellence Awards are returning as Calgary’s LGBTQ awards ceremony in the same year that a new LGBTQ+ radio show has been resurrected, called Calgary Rainbow Radio. It is also fitting that the Heart of Excellence is being sponsored by CJSW.
The Chinook Lesbian and Gay Endowment Fund does give out one annual life-time Hero award for service in Alberta at their dinner each year. The Heart of Excellence will not replace the life-time achievement award given by Chinook. Outlink hopes that the Heart Awards can focus on encouraging youth and the community to create legacies in Calgary going forward. Perhaps one day award winners from the Heart of Excellence will receive the prestigious Hero award for their lifetimes of giving and of having an impact well beyond Calgary, just as past the past Heros have so graciously modelled.
Outlink wanted a participatory format so that gala participants could become intimately involved. In Outlink’s search for ideas regarding how to put the event together, past volunteers suggested that the format could parallel past Calgary LGBTQ+ events, such as Small Change Big Change. Small Change Big Change was an annual event that ran for approximately 10 years to support HIV research and services at the Southern Alberta Clinic. The concept was to obtain a piggy bank, fill it with change, then bring it to a large party as your donation and entry to the event. It is a concept widely used for fundraising across North America.
The Heart of Excellence will bring back the ‘collecting small change to make larger impact’ concept to the LGBTQ+ community in Calgary with a launch on March 15th. At the launch, people will again pick-up money banks and be encouraged to fundraise for the 6 weeks leading up to the main awards event.
As a part of getting the participants involved, the awards nominees are identified as candidates by the community. A committee then reviews all the candidates and selects the very best for the final slate of nominees. Anyone who agrees to take a money bank will receive the opportunity to vote for their preferred nominees in each category. The winners will then be announced at the awards ceremony.
Categories for the award include The Youth Heart for the LGBTQ+ youth of the year; The Service Heart for involvement in LGBTQ+ community organizations; The Resilient Heart for LGBTQ+ volunteerism; The Artistic Heart for the LGBTQ+ artist of the year; the Entrepreneurial Heart for the LGBTQ+ business or entrepreneur of the year; and the Grand Heart, an LGBTQ+ human rights award.
It is fitting that TD Bank Group is sponsoring the awards this year and encouraging saving to have an impact. FS Financial Strategies is similarly hosting the launch through their Mission of Care foundation. Wentworth Family Dental and Dave Gowryluk Re/Max Realty Professionals are also sponsoring the events. Gay Calgary Magazine is a media sponsor.
The Heart of Excellence Awards merges LGBTQ+ Awards with fundraising to celebrate Calgary’s best LGBTQ volunteers of the past year in a gala evening. It will honour outstanding individuals in Calgary's LGBTQ+ community by paying tribute to their contribution to community service, leadership, business, arts, and mentorship in Alberta.
The ceremony will take place at Studio Bell, the National Music Centre in East Village on April 28th at 7pm. As the awards are given out, various musicians and artists will exhibit their works. It will truly be a night to remember.
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Contributor Kelly Ernst |
Locale Calgary |
Topic Calgary Outlink |
