The Weyburn Chamber of Commerce named the late Ron Fellner as the 2021 posthumous recipient of the Golden Spike Award, which was accepted by his wife Lorraine, during a zoom presentation of the chamber’s annual meeting on Wednesday.
The award was announced by Ron Irvine of Access Communications, the sponsor of the award, acknowledging his lifelong work with the Weyburn Red Wings and in serving as an RM of Weyburn councillor since 2004. Ron passed away on March 6.
Accepting the award, Lorraine was very emotional as she spoke to the zoom meeting and thanked the Golden Spike committee for the honour.
“Ron never did it for this type of recognition or an award, he did this out of the goodness of his heart. He believed in doing it for the good of the organization,” she said.
Of his involvement with the Weyburn Red Wings, she said, “First and foremost, he was a fan, and he knew his commitment and support was made so there was even a team to cheer on. Ron was quick to acknowledge everyone’s efforts, and there was no task that was too small or too big. When he took on a task, he saw it through to the end.”
Lorraine added of this award, “He would’ve been incredibly humbled by this award.”
In speaking of Ron’s accomplishments and contributions to the community, Irvine said Ron was a volunteer and fan of the Red Wings since their inception as a team in 1961, along with serving as a volunteer and board member.
“He could certainly be heard from all ends of the arena. In his younger years he coached minor hockey teams and was a 4-H leader who left a lasting impact on those he coached and led,” said Irvine, adding he and Lorraine also served as managers of the Weyburn Utilities Board since 1990.
“He was a big voice in making sure there was a reasonable agreement with the City of Weyburn,” said Irvine. “He believed in the mantra that ‘if we’re going to do it, we need to do it right’. If that meant spending a little more to save money after the completion of the project, that’s what he pushed for.”
Serving as the councillor for Division 2 with the RM of Weyburn since 2004, he served on many committees and boards, and “spent countless hours ensuring he had the proper information to answer any questions of ratepayers, even if he had to make notes on a napkin or an envelope.”
Ron always took time with new councillors to make sure they knew the best way to voice the concerns of their ratepayers, “and he believed in personally reaching out or making phone calls to find solutions to someone’s concern,” said Irvine, adding, “The list of his accomplishments could go on and on.”
Earlier, one of the speakers for the Chamber’s annual meeting was RM Reeve Norm McFadden, and he paid tribute to Ron for his many years of serving the RM.
“Ron leaves a huge legacy of helping people in the community. He for sure will be dearly missed. There are so many things that Ron has done over the years that people just don’t know about. If someone was down on their luck or if someone needed a hand with something, it didn’t matter what it was, he was always there to do what he could to help out. He definitely will be missed,” said McFadden.
He shared a personal story how Ron coached his midget hockey team, and one year he took the team on a bus to Bismarck, N.D., and convinced the players’ parents to let the boys go with just the two coaches, team manager and bus driver.
“To this day, I have no idea what Ron said to the parents, but whatever he said worked,” said McFadden, adding he has a lot of great memories of that trip, “and it was all thanks to Ron.”
He noted that the RM will soon be putting out a call for nominations to fill his seat on the RM council.
