They say that a good deed is its own reward, but for Kay Nestorovich her decades and decades of volunteering are coming back to thank her in spades.
“I still volunteer a little bit,” she said. “Last Saturday, a lady wanted to go to the emergency room and she asked me to walk with her. I said, ‘Oh, sure, I love walking.’
“When I dropped her off, there was four ladies taking stock at the gift shop where I used to work years ago. All four of them stopped working, came over to me and gave me a big hug and wished me a happy new year. They dropped their work to say hi. I was thrilled.”
The 95 year old just can’t stop helping people. On Jan. 4, she was spending her mornings pushing wheelchairs to help others get to the church service at the Smithfield Lodge.
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. In October, she received recognition from the Alberta government for accumulating over 65 years of volunteer service with Alberta Health Services through the Westlock Health Care Auxiliary, receiving an antique clock as a gift.
“Apparently the government was keeping tracking, even back then,” she said. “I didn’t even know the clock was coming. I feel very honoured by it. I’m very proud.”
Nestorovich is on a bit of a recruitment drive. Not quite as nimble as she used to be, she is reaching out to the community to bring in more volunteers to fill her deep shoes.
“I hope that more young people start volunteering,” said Nestorovich. “There’s a young girl, her grandmother lives across the hall from me. She started volunteering when she was just 13. She’s in Grade 12 now, but she still comes out and volunteers. I think that’s wonderful.”
She added that volunteering could be as simple as keeping people company, noting that life in the lodge tends to get a bit lonely.
“I don’t see my children hardly at all,” she explained. “It’s not that they don’t want to come, but my oldest daughter is fighting cancer — she can’t even drive anymore. My oldest granddaughter, she’s in Okotoks. Her brother is in Calgary and his wife is not very well. They can’t do things for me, but the volunteer that comes here is the one that really means a lot.”
She added that her other two children are also coping with health issues that keep them away.
Born in Poland to Ukrainian parents, Nestorovich immigrated to Canada when she was six years old. However, as far as she is concerned, she is a true Canadian.
She explained her father was able to take advantage of the Canadian government’s Dominion Lands Act, presenting her family with quarter section of land in exchange for developing it.
“All that was on the land when we got it was rocks,” she explained. “It was hardship. For the first few years we lived on rabbits and potatoes… if we had potatoes. We didn’t have milk or butter. Once we killed a porcupine for the fat. It was hard, but we survived. Maybe that’s why I’m living so long.”
Before she came out to Westlock Auxiliary, she volunteered with her local church and the Jarvie 4-H Club.
While she emphasized the need for younger people to get involved in volunteering, Nestorovich added that she was going to keep going herself as long as she could.
“My greatest pleasure is to see people smile.”
