It was an easy decision for this years Citizen of the Year award which will be given out at the Mark of Excellence awards on Mar. 23.
Former Mayor Malcolm Eaton will be taking home the award for the amazing work he has done during his time as a teacher and principal and then as a councillor and mayor of Humboldt.
Eaton has had a long history of getting involved in the community.
Arriving in Humboldt in the early 1980s, Eaton retired from full-time teaching in 2006 when he became mayor of Humboldt.
Eaton taught part-time at the Collegiate for a time while he was mayor and did not fully retire from teaching until 2012.
As not only the principal of St. Augustine and later St. Dominic school but also the parent to five children, getting involved with his children’s activities was a natural step for him, he says.
“It’s figure skating, it’s Girl Guides, it’s hockey, it’s baseball. I’ve certainly been involved with a lot of things.”
Eaton says he got that from his father and all that work that he did in his own community, like getting involved with the Air Cadets, town council, school board, and Automobile Association of Saskatchewan.
He always went for the greater scale of organizations, says Eaton.
“As much as you want to work with and support your local community, you also want to make things better in the larger picture.”
Eaton’s own involvement outside of Humboldt with organizations like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Saskatchewan Association of Regional Municipalities, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, and Saskatoon Regional Health Authority comes from seeing his father do the same.
Eaton also took a lot from his role with those types of organizations since he was able to see the problems and solutions of other cities and municipalities and gain valuable information that he could bring back to Humboldt.
“You always want to look at how you can influence the bigger picture let alone the local picture,” says Eaton.
This bigger picture of how the rest of the province and country are facing issues and solving problems has a benefit at the local level as well, says Eaton, recalling his work with Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and the Health Region and how he was about to bring the Humboldt voice to the table.
“Being involved in those kinds of organizations and those kinds of opportunities allows you to understand how it all works better and be a positive influence.”
A lot of local initiatives also came to task while Eaton was mayor, things like being nominated for Kraft Hockeyville, furnishing the new hospital, and other opportunities to bring something to benefit Humboldt.
“It wasn’t so much as I saw it as the mayor’s job as I saw it as just something our community will really enjoy and really benefit from.”
Eaton is very humbled by receiving the Citizen of the Year award but looking back on his long career, he says that makes him recall the people he has worked with along the way, espcially former councillors that sat with him at the council table.
Whatever he has accomplished, Eaton says he did not go through any of that on his own and council members especially have always been there to support him, says Eaton.
“When you get involved in other things, provincially or federally, sometimes that takes you away. They’ve certainly supported me to do that and sometimes had to cover for me.”
This kind of work you never do it alone, says Eaton, especially when it comes to his family that has supported him along the way, especially his wife.
“Carol has not been one to ever be in the spotlight but she has been extremely supportive and helpful.”
That can be said for a lot of people in Humboldt who have taken on different volunteer opportunities and Eaton says that has certainly inspired him.
“Those people inspire the rest of us and I hope I’m able to inspire other people.”
