Skate Saskatchewan president honoured for volunteer dedication

By David McIver

The president of Skate Saskatchewan has to attend practically every event on the calendar. For current president Allyson Senecal of Rosetown, one event this season was unexpected. That was the Sask Sport Awards gala in Regina on Jan. 29, where she received a recognition award for volunteer dedication.

“It was a total surprise,” Senecal said.

“I didn’t realize I’d been nominated and when I got the phone call, I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’

“Yeah, I was shocked . . . it was a very nice surprise.”

For her long and varied contributions in skating, Allyson Senecal (C) of Rosetown receives a Sask Sport volunteer recognition award during the Sask Sports awards banquet in Regina on Jan. 29. Amy Prokop (L), Sask Sport board chair, makes the presentation, along with Alanna Ross (R), minister of Parks, Culture and Sport. Photo by Sask Sport/Shoot With Scrapes

Senecal was one of nine people receiving recognition awards and one of only three for volunteer dedication.

Skate Saskatchewan nominated her for the award and sent in, with the nomination, probably three or four letters of support, she said.

Senecal’s more than three decades of volunteering, “being guided by an athlete-first philosophy,” were mentioned in a video shown at the gala, taken from interviews done with her and the other recognition award winners beforehand. Her portion of the YouTube video, the first among those winners, starts around the 32-minute mark.

“I always loved skating . . . I was a recreational skater and I got back into it when my kids got into the CanSkate stage,” she states in the video.

“I started looking around at our club and I thought, ‘I’d really like to help out our club a little bit,’ so that’s where it started.”

Senecal has had roles at club, provincial and national levels and, provincially, including the officials development co-ordinator, committee chairperson, member-at-large and president of the board of directors, said Danielle Shaw, executive director for Skate Saskatchewan.

“I do it to help the skaters to do the best they can on the day that they are skating,” whether as a judge, evaluator or technical person, “just to make sure the atmosphere is calm,” so they can do their best, said Senecal in the video.

“I’m passionate about the sport because, to me, it’s important to help the skaters, young or old, realize their dreams, realize their potential, and I feel like it’s in the volunteers to be able to give the best that is in them, so the skaters can do the best for them.”

Speaking in person last week, “It was a huge honour to get it,” she said.

Earlier in January, Senecal had been to the Canadian championships in Ottawa.

Being an Olympic year led to “some pretty exciting moments because you don’t know who is going to be the one selected,” she said.

Canada can only send one each among the men and the women, “so there’s a lot on the line for all of those competitors.”

Senecal’s agenda didn’t end with the Canadian championships.

She is the technical representative for skating, which runs from Feb. 18 to 21.

After that, she’s involved in the Winter Classic provincial invitational in Swift Current from Feb. 27 to March 1.

Her dedication means being somewhere on every weekend of the winter. But “I still love it, so that’s OK.”