Helen Sidney has been named the 2022 Good Citizen of the Year (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

160 nominations

Woman who cleans up after others named Good Citizen of Year

Jan 26, 2023 | 12:50 PM

A 100-year-old woman who spends her free time picking up garbage, has been named the Vernon’s Good Citizen of the Year for 2022.

Helen Sidney was presented with the award from JCI Vernon at a surprise event outside Vernon City Hall Thursday, Jan. 26.

Helen Sidney has been named the 2022 Good Citizen of the Year (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

“This is unbelievable, thank you so so much,” Sidney said after receiving the award.

“I hope to live another 10 years to carry on with work for the city and to earn and deserve all this.”

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Speaking with Vernon Matters after receiving the award for community service, Sidney stated she felt overwhelmed.

“I feel very, very humbled, and all the wonderful people of this community are here to greet me today, and this is fantastic. It’s something I never expected,” Sidney told Vernon Matters.

“I did hear something a while ago that I was being nominated Citizen of the Year, but I didn’t really expect to get it. This is a wonderful surprise. Thank you everybody for thinking of me, thank you so much.”

Sidney walks along Bella Vista Rd. daily to pick up trash discarded from passing cars, adding she waves to vehicles passing by and they often wave back.

“They’ll come behind me and they’ll honk their horns and get their arms out [to wave]. It’s wonderful,” Sidney, a retired teacher, said.

Sidney’s daughter, Marge, who brought her to the event on the pretense of meeting some friends of hers, added she encourages her mother to continue her routine because if she were to fall “I know someone would stop and help her.”

Sidney said her daily routine sees her pick up everything from coffee cups to pizza boxes to even empty egg cartons, adding she hopes her work can inspire others to clean up their community as well.

Along with the award, Kidston and Company LLP gifted Sidney with a cheque for $500 to be donated to her charity or group of choice.

Kidston and Company LLP presents 2022 Good Citizen of the Year, Helen Sidney, with a cheque for $500 to support the cause of her choice (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

She immediately chose to support the St. James School.

“They’re building a new school out in Lavington or in Coldstream somewhere because the school where they are situated now doesn’t have a big enough playground to invite other sports teams to come to play, so they’ll have lots of room to invite other teams in and have more place to play and so on,” Sidney said.

“I feel the students need all the support they can get.”

Sidney was a teacher in Armstrong for 42 years, and when she retired in 1988, she moved to Vernon.

Sidney was granted the title of Citizen of the Year from Junior Chamber International Vernon (JCI Vernon) following numerous nominations from members of the public.

“We do a call out for nominations at the end of December and in the first week, we had nine incredible nominations for nine different people in the community, which was a lot in the first week,” Abby Lagerquist, co-chair for JCI Vernon’s 2022 Good Citizen fo the Year, told Vernon Matters.

“Then the tenth [nomination] was Helen Sidney, and from there it blew up and we got over 160 nominations just for Helen herself, and reading all of them, a lot of them were very similar in the type of woman she is and the type of citizen she is to help our community, and at that point, we just kind of said ‘It’s time to choose Helen.'”

Lagerquist added a social media campaign launched to support Sidney’s bid helped guide JCI Vernon’s choice.

“That [campaign] definitely helped with all the nominations fo sure,” Lagerquist said.

“I think after that article was published, it blew up and we got about 100 in a couple of days. So that definitely escalated, but even before that happened, we had a couple [nominations], a dozen or so, for Helen.”

Lagerquist also noted, though Sidney was named this year’s recipient, there were another 10 to 15 people nominated for the award and she doesn’t want to discourage those other individuals from continuing their work or from people nominated those individuals.

“We love to see and hear all these incredible stories,” said Lagerquest.

“Yes, this year we are honouring Helen, but it’s actually to honour everybody in the community who helps volunteer and makes Vernon a great place to be.”

Mayor Victor Cumming, who missed the surprise ceremony but did step outside City Hall to speak with Sidney, added she is a worthy recipient of the award.

“It’s great to have these community members, that’s what makes the community so rich: you have people that just do as they do and it really creates a rich community to live in,” Cumming stated.

“And if you’re on Bella Vista in the morning you get to wave and say hi.”

Vernon mayor Victor Cumming and 2022 Good Citizen of the Year Helen Sidney (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)