The tremendous community contributions of one Tsawwassen family was recognized again when the 2020 Delta Citizen of the Year was announced during the Delta Chamber of Commerce’s 69th annual Hats Off to Excellence Gala.
It was back in 2014 when Vickie Sangster was honoured for her volunteer work, that included leading the Tsawwassen Rotary’s water park project at Diefenbaker Park while courageously battling lung cancer. She passed away in October of last year.
Last Thursday, during a virtual awards presentation, it was her husband Don’s turn to be recognized for decades of tireless contributions, including the last 10 years with the Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation Board.
“It makes it pretty neat and special to me,” said Sangster. “It’s an honour and a very prestigious award to win. There are a lot of really good people in this community that are very deserving of this. When you look at the recipients, there are some pretty great names in our past too. I’m very lucky.”
Sangster’s impact with the Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation includes co-chairing key fundraising events. His run on the board concludes this year.
“We want to congratulate Don on his well-deserved win as Citizen of the Year. During his 10-year tenure, he made a significant impact by chairing numerous gala and golf events, many of which were record breakers. Thank you Don for your commitment to our community,” said Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation executive director Lisa Hoglund.
Sangster also chaired the early years of the Delta Sports Hall of Fame and also served on the inaugural selection committee. He is destined to be an inductee himself as a builder thanks to his superb leadership with girls fastpitch that included spearheading the re-development of Brandrith Park.The Tsawwassen Minor Softball Association, which it was known as at the time, suddenly had one of the premier facilities in the Lower Mainland.
“If you live in your community, you always need to give back to your community. You try to get involved with the right committees then try and get things done,” added Sangster who has lived in Tsawwassen for over 40 years.
“The nice thing about our community is, for a lot of years, we have had good people at our city hall that are prepared to work and are not wanting to put road blocks up. We have had a couple of great councils that have been willing to put up the capital expenditure for the right projects and right things. It wasn’t so good back in the old days where we had fundraise for our own projects.”
