- Awarded on: April 20, 1999
Nancie Middleton, Kelowna, B.C.
Governor General's Caring Canadian Award
In addition to other volunteer activities over the years, Nancie Middleton has devoted her life to the city's street people since 1984. Realizing that people who were unemployed, mentally ill, migrant workers, homeless and impoverished needed a place where they could have a cup of coffee and talk, she and a partner started the first Kelowna Drop-In and Information Centre. The Centre now prepares resumes, offers a telephone for local calls, serves as a mailing address, provides showers and laundry facilities, distributes food and clothing - and serves coffee. Mrs. Middleton provides food hampers and dinners on special holidays, takes people who are ill to hospital and spends every Friday morning in court to provide moral support to those who need it.