Citizen of the Year to Ladner Rotarian Irene Forcier

Posted by Peter Roaf on Nov 24, 2017
First female president of the 60-year-old Rotary Club of Ladner, the club’s 2017 Rotarian of the Year, recipient of the Governor General's Silver Medal for Outstanding Community Service, Paul Harris Fellow and long-time community leader, Irene Forcier, has received the Delta Chamber of Commerce’s 66th Citizen of the Year Award. The award was presented at the Delta Chamber’s annual Hats Off to Excellence dinner on November 24, 2107 at Tsawwassen Springs.
 
Delta's 2017 Citizen of the Year Irene Forcier receives
her award from sponsor, Envision Financial, including
fellow Ladner Rotarian Geoff Willers (right)
Irene Forcier with her family who attended
the Delta Chamber of Commerce 2017 Hats
Off to Excellence Awards evening
Ladner Rotarian Lindsay Eldridge's Nurse Next Door
was a finalist in the Hats Off Small Business Award
category
Ladner Rotarian Louise Wechselberger was recognized
for her long service and outstanding contribution at the
Delta Chamber of Commerce
For the past four years Irene has chaired the Ladner Rotary Splash Park Committee which has raised half the $640,000 required, in partnership with the City of Delta, to build a new, safer and eco-friendly splash park for children of all abilities, the largest project ever undertaken by the Rotary Club of Ladner.
 
Prior to that role she served for two years as Chair of the Reach Child and Youth Development Foundation to raise funds to build a state of the art development centre for children, youth and their families who are experiencing and living with developmental and other disabilities. During her term Reach raised the first $1 million towards the $5 million project which is preparing to open after seven years of development.
 
Irene’s long list of achievements and contributions to the community include her 26 years at Deltassist Community Services, most of the time as Executive Director, working with a board, 54 staff, over 500 volunteers and 25 programs to support Delta residents of all ages in need, attracting millions of dollars in program funding. She served as Chair of the Association of Community Transportation Services and developed, and became first chair of, the first Provincial Association of Community Transportation services for the disabled.
 
Irene served on the provincial Minister’s Advisory Committee to examine the community-based delivery of services to women taking her from the Victoria to communities across BC. She has served on various committees in Delta, including the Cooperative Community Planners for Mental Health, Healthy Communities Committee, Suicide Advisory Committee, Delta Child and Youth Committee and the Multicultural Diversity Committee. For several years she advised the Delta Mayor and Council's Community Services Advisory Committee and the Mayor's Task Force on Youth in Delta.
 
Born in Alert Bay, BC, Irene has lived in the province her entire life mainly in Delta. She and her husband Charles live in the Tsawwassen community of Delta.