It’s been a long and enjoyable time for Pam Dechief on the board and as a volunteer for the Estevan and District Music Festival.
That dedication was recognized when the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association as one of a handful of people honoured for their volunteer work with their respective music festivals. Dechief is one of the Music Festival Volunteers for 2018.
The nomination was put forward by the local festival.
“You get the nomination, you get the award,” she said. The local festival had a supper in her honour earlier Thursday night.
“Ten people are chosen, ten people are given a certificate and then acknowledged at the provincial level for being great volunteers for the music festivals in their communities.”
Her appreciation of music is a lifelong one, having started as a participant in the local festival as a solo clarinet player as a child. One of her daughters entered the festival in piano at age 5 and not long after, Dechief was on the committee for the festival and spending five years as president.
“It’s such a great organization to give children an opportunity to showcase their talents,” she said. “Whether it’s music, piano, band or speech arts.”
She said speech arts, or story recitation and story telling, is her favourite because you don’t need instruments to take part.
“You learn a lot about gaining the confidence for public speaking and it helps them through life,” Dechief said.
“It’s so great seeing the little kids going out and reciting their poems at age 6, 7 or 8, and see how they develop when they’re 13, 14, 15 years old” she said. “It’s just incredible to see the change in their ability to deliver a speech or a poem or storytelling.
With her children now adults, Dechief maintains volunteering at the festival.
“I don’t play an instrument (now), but I got involved with the activities my children participated in over the years and threw myself into them 100 per cent to be a part of my kids’ lives,” said Dechief. “It benefitted me in that I developed a lot of friendships with the people I was working with, and getting to know the community.”
Dechief is also a dedicated volunteer at a lot of events and causes in the community, including the Girl Guides, Canadian Red Cross disaster services and community outreach, the SaskTel Tankard earlier this year and the Home Hardware Canada Cup, as well as vice-chair for the Sask Summer Games in Estevan.
Speech arts, though, remain her favourite part of the festival every year.
““The most entertaining is musical theatre.”
