In early March, Chantel Todd, recreation director for the town of Niverville, was honoured with the Prairie Crocus Award, the most prestigious award given by Recreation Manitoba. The award is given to those who have made significant contributions to recreation and leisure services.
“When I first started ten years ago, it was just me,” Todd says. “But we’ve grown over the years, slowly adding staff to our recreation department. And now we have a beautiful recreation centre… and now we’re over 30 staff.”
Todd has played an integral role in growing the amenities at parks throughout the community, as well as working on the programming side.
She was nominated for the Prairie Crocus Award by coworkers.
Todd gives a lot of credit to Niverville’s town council for reliably advocating for recreation. She also cites the decision many years ago to create Hespeler Park.
She attended the University of Manitoba with the intention of getting a degree in kinesiology and becoming a physiotherapist. While there, however, she learned that the same faculty also offered classes in recreation management.
“I just fell in love with municipal recreation,” Todd says. “It’s not something you expect somebody to say they fell in love with, but I did.”
In her last year of studies, Todd began working for the recreation department in the RM of Ritchot as part of her fieldwork requirement.
One month before receiving her bachelor’s degree in Recreation Management and Community Development, she was hired to work in Niverville.
Since that time, she has purchased a home in the town, gotten married, and had two children. She says that her kids now think of the CRRC as a second home.
“I love this community. I like working recreation and continuing to expand what we can offer here. And I think we’re doing a pretty good job! We seem to have more new ideas of workshops and programs all the time. I think I’ll be living in Niverville and growing my family here for a while. I don’t plan on leaving.”
Todd says that she was so honoured to learn that she had even been nominated for the Prairie Crocus Award.
Her message to members of the community is to get involved wherever possible, whether it’s joining a team, volunteering, coaching, or doing anything else to make a contribution. The goal, she says, is to see as much community engagement as possible.
“If someone has a passion or is an instructor of some sort, just reach out to us at Niverville Rec and we can try and get something up and running,” she says. “We have a lot of things that people can try right here at the CRRC. I just encourage everyone to get active, get out, and get to trying new things.”
