The B.C. Games looked back on four decades of sport, and also honoured four of the area’s standouts when it comes to sports volunteering.
The Sport B.C. Community Sport Hero Awards were presented at the B.C. Games’ 40th anniversary special event at the Nanaimo Museum on May 2.
The local honourees are Eloy Fiandor for judo, Selena Pellizzari for equestrian, Rick Bevis for volleyball and Brian Boas for lacrosse.
Fiandor has been instructor at the Nanaimo Judo Club for more than 15 years and has served as a coach and official with the B.C. Games.
Fiandor creates a “family environment at the club by teaching both judo skills and weaving those into life skills,” notes a press release. “He is an active participant in his classes, thus teaching by doing.”
Pellizzari has volunteered in the equestrian community both in Nanaimo and around the province for more than 20 years.
She has shown “willingness to mentor both coaches and athletes and [has had a] strong role in enhancing awareness of her sport in the broader community,” the release notes.
She has participated in the B.C. Games as an athlete, provincial advisor and coach.
Bevis has been an active volunteer in the volleyball community for the past 20 years as a director and coach and has coached at two B.C. Games.
According to the release, Bevis started up club volleyball with three teams in two age groups and the club has grown to 17 teams, seven age groups, 175 athletes and 30 volunteer coaches.
Boas has coached lacrosse and been a director and served five years as president of Nanaimo District Lacrosse Association. He was sport chair for lacrosse at the 2014 B.C. Games in Nanaimo.
The Sport B.C. Community Sport Hero Awards honoured outstanding volunteers in six British Columbia communities that have hosted the B.C. Games.