On Friday evening people gathered at the Swift Current Art Galley to watch 34 people receive Canada 150 medals.

David Anderson, the MLA for Cypress-Grasslands, said these medals are a way to recognize people across southwestern Saskatchewan who have committed themselves to their communities. 

"Typically we had a medal minted on any of the centennial or the more important years," Anderson said. "We just thought, if we can mint a medal to just recognize the people in southwestern Saskatchewan and the riding of Cypress-Hills Grasslands and from the turnout we had tonight it was a great success."

Anderson said it was a privilege to be able to present the medals.

"These are the people that are the heart of their communities," he said. "Some of them have given 60-70 years to their communities, others are very young and are people who are leading their communities. It's a great privilege for me to stand up and present them with these awards."

The medal recipients were nominated by members of their communities, family, and friends.

Anderson said they want to try to recognize as many people as possible, so they created five different categories to include everyone.

"We've got one category for bridge builders, who are people who have been in their communities for a long time working," he said. "We have one for veterans. We had a veteran tonight who was honoured with a standing ovation which was probably the most touching moment of the night. We had one for young people, we wanted people under the age of 20, who are contributing to their communities, and one for newcomers, who are people who have come from another country and made this their community and are contributing to it."

Gordon Hartley was one of the two veterans honoured and was given a standing ovation for his service.

Hartley, 94, is the last living Normandy veteran in Swift Current and said that he was on Cloud 9 while he was being honoured. 

Tim Geifer, the reeve of the RM of Happy Land in Leader, and one of the recipients of the medals, said that it was a very humbling experience to be presented with the award.

"It's very humbling, when you look around in a small community there are so many components to make a small community grow and thrive, and I'm just one small person in a large group of people."

Here's a list of the all the recipients:

Mohamed Abdelhamid, Swift Current

Lindsey Alliban, Hazlet

Rod Appleby, Caronport

Dr Blayne Banting, Caronport

Joy Barness, Frontier

Maksyn Bilan, Swift Current

Dallas Block, Shaunavon

Wilfred Boon, Lucky Lake

Michael Evans-Smith, Swift Current

Evelyn Fossum, Frontier

Tim Geiger, Leader

Marilyn Geron Geoffrion, Gravelbourg

Bula Ghosh, Swift Current

Gordon Hartley, Swift Current

Mabel Hobbs, Maple Creek

Glenn Honey, Frontier

Greg Honey, Frontier

Roy King, Birsay

Peggy Koethler, Swift Current

Tom Luchensky, Lucky Lake

Dr Paul Magnus

Janise Michel, Eastend

Brad Nelson, Frontier

Darlene Nicholson, Swift Current

Gerald Olson, Swift Current

Dr Maria Cristina Pennington, Lucky Lake

Jacqueline Powell, Swift Current

Lori Ries, Eston

Shelly Rusnell, Riverhurst

Millie Spagrud, Gull Lake

Toos Giesen Stefiuk, Gravelbourg

Jason Tangen, Swift Current

Jerry Weins, Beechy

We Day Committee, Eastend School