Whether it’s masonry work, installing a new roof or driving a fellow local to an out of town appointment, Art Skoda’s commitment to his community never stops.
“He’s amazing,” Ucluelet local Mary Christmas told the Westerly News. “If you need something, he’ll come and do it. If he hears about somebody who needs something, he goes and does it.”
Christmas and Mary Kimoto lead a local push to honour Skoda with Ucluelet’s 2017 Volunteer of the Year Award and had collected over 400 signatures by the time Skoda was announced as the award’s recipient on Sunday.
“You have to be careful what you tell him, because he’ll come and fix it,” Christmas said. “If people need him, he’ll be there.”
She added she herself has been the recipient of Skoda’s tireless volunteerism.
“For me, he’s rebuilt a porch that was falling down, repaired a step that was broken, put in a railing on the stairs; he just does whatever people need for him to do,” she said adding Skoda also helped out a friend of hers who was temporarily knocked down by a medical issue.
“He took me out three times to Nanaimo to see her and then, before she came home, he built a huge ramp so she could get into her house when she got home. He went in and put up all the railings and everything so it’s safe for her.”
She added Skoda also volunteers to clear garbage off beaches, helps eradicate invasive scotch broom and has worked with the Thornton Creek Hatchery Society and the Food Bank on the Edge.
She hopes to see more locals catch Skoda’s volunteer fever.
“One of the things I think’s happening is that people are less and less able to volunteer. Volunteers are not as readily available as they used to be,” she said. “We forget that we can help each other and that we should help each other.”
Ucluelet local Amie Shimizu wrote one of many letters in support of Skoda receiving the award.
“Art is an amazing soul,” Shimizu wrote.
She recalled Skoda helping her and her husband build their popular Howler’s Family Restaurant.
“He showed up everyday ready to work, bringing his own tools. He wouldn’t allow us to pay him for his work,” she wrote.
“We always looked forward to work along his side. He even showed Khan, our three year old son at the time how to mud up walls. Art deserves to be volunteer of the year for the rest of his life.”
Skoda was not in town to receive his award during the Ukee Days festivities, but Christmas assured she would pass the news of his Volunteer of the Year accomplishment along to him.