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