Seven decades of service ; Prince George woman recognized for a lifetime of volunteering

A long time member of the Prince George community, Shirley Gratton, received the medal of Good Citizenship award this week from Mayor Lyn Hall.

“It was really humbling, truly a surprise and it actually brought me to tears because I’m just an ordinary person,” said Gratton.

However, Gratton’s claim to being ordinary could be disputed by her 70 years of volunteering in Prince George.

Born and raised in PG, she started volunteering with the 4-H club at just ten years old and is currently volunteering as a ‘tree fluffer’ for the Festival of Trees.

“Right now I’m in Prince George for the Festival, it’s actually my 27th year with them,” explained Gratton, “we take the trees out of the boxes and make them look like they grow in the forest!”

The medal of Good Citizenship isn’t the first time Gratton has received recognition for her outstanding contributions to PG.

“In 1953 in High School I was awarded the Athletic and Citizenship Award for three years,” she said, “so it’s kind of coincidental that I’m receiving the Citizenship award many years later.”

From starting the twenty-year tradition of hanging flowers on the bypass to serving as the baseball commissioner for Northern BC for 35 years, Gratton has managed to build quite the resume throughout her lifetime.

“I don’t do great things just little things that I guess eventually do count,” she explained.

Additionally, she assisted in building the ‘Christ our Saviour’ church in the Hart and helped write four cookbooks that were sold to raise funds for the church.

“From there, I was part of the Weaver’s and Spinner’s organization and we did presentations for the community and even dressed Mr.PG one year we knitted him a scarf for his birthday,” she said.

Additionally, she was the recipient of the Governor General’s Confederation medal in 1992, in 2003 she received the 50th Queen’s Jubilee medal and more recently the Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012.

In 2013, Gratton became the Freeman of the city after being part of the  City Council for 13 years.

Now at 86 years old, she explained, “it starts with the little things like picking litter because the little things help and go a long way.”