MAPLE CREEK — As National Volunteer Week is marked across the country; Saskatchewan is celebrating its own.
Ron Schaal of Maple Creek has been named Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Saskatchewan Volunteer of the Year and National Volunteer of the Year, recognition that honours more than four decades of conservation work and community leadership.
“Ron’s been a volunteer for about 45 years in the Maple Creek area,” said Tom Jordens, Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Saskatchewan manager of volunteer relations, based in Regina. “He was one of the original Ducks Unlimited members here.”
Jordens said the Maple Creek chapter first met in 1982, with its inaugural fundraising dinner held in the spring of 1983. Schaal has been involved ever since.
“He is super passionate about conservation, the outdoors and wildlife,” Jordens said. “He is everything that Ducks Unlimited stands for.”
The timing of the national award worked particularly well for the Maple Creek chapter. Jordens was able to offer a preview of the honour during the chapter’s 40th anniversary banquet on April 18, ahead of the formal national announcement during National Volunteer Week.
“They hadn’t made the announcement yet, but because Ron is such a key volunteer in Saskatchewan, they let me in on the secret,” Jordens said. “We were also recognizing several long‑time volunteers that night, and Ron’s national award was the cherry on top.”
Schaal was first named Saskatchewan Volunteer of the Year earlier this year after being nominated alongside several other volunteers from across the province. That provincial recognition was presented in early February, with Schaal formally recognized at a Ducks Unlimited workshop in Saskatoon on Feb. 20.
All provincial recipients then advanced to the national selection process. Schaal emerged as the sole national winner.
“There’s just one award winner nationally, and he was the one,” Jordens said. “It was fantastic that his home community was able to recognize him.”
Despite his long service, Schaal said the recognition came as a surprise.
“I was quite surprised,” he said. “I was awarded the provincial one in February, but the national one, I think they wanted to present it at our 40th Ducks Unlimited banquet in Maple Creek. I was really surprised.”
Schaal traces his involvement with Ducks Unlimited back to the Crane Lake project in southwest Saskatchewan.
“When I went out and saw what they had done there, the work to support duck and goose populations was phenomenal,” he said.
He credits Ducks Unlimited supporter Fred Hanks with encouraging him to get involved.
“I was always interested,” Schaal said. “Meeting Fred was what really got me started.”
A lifelong resident of southwest Saskatchewan — first in Eastend and now in Maple Creek — Schaal continues to volunteer locally and serves on the Ducks Unlimited Saskatchewan provincial council.
“My main goal,” he said, “is to keep Ducks Unlimited going for the younger generation.”
