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Central Quebec School: Community Service Awards

Quebec Community Dept: ALINE VISSER, according to Montreal Gazette. Gazette: What is it like today for a small Englishspeaking community in an otherwise overwhelmingly francophone region and anglophone community leaders from across Quebec gathered in Montreal on Oct. 22 to honour the 2011 winners of the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Awards. The awards, given by the Quebec Community Groups Network, an umbrella organization for anglophone community groups across the province, are named for a couple well-known for their own community service: Victor Goldbloom has served as an MNA, head of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, and federal official-languages commissioner, while Sheila Goldbloom is a professor of social work, founding board member of the Foundation of Greater Montreal, and in 2008 was co-chair of a provincial commission on the living conditions of Quebec seniors. Both have a long history of charitable and volunteer work. The three winners of the 2011 Goldbloom awards recently spoke to The Gazette's communities editor, David Johnston, about their own work. Visser was born in Farnham of Lebanese immigrant parents. After graduating from Bishop's University in Lennoxville in 1957, she took a teaching position in Thetford Mines - where she has lived ever since. She worked for 35 years as a teacher before retiring in 1992 to devote more time to a broad range of community activities. Visser, 74, is the current chair of the board of directors of the Centre de sant et de services sociaux de la region de Thetford. Since 1993 she has been a school commissioner with the Central Quebec School Board. She is also a founding member of the M gantic English-speaking Community Development Corporation, which serves the anglophone population of the Chaudi re-Appalaches and L' rable regions. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.