Queen's Platinum Jubilee

This week, our President & CEO, Melissa From, was awarded a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal, recognizing her significant contributions as an Albertan and nonprofit leader at JA Southern Alberta for over a decade.

Introduced earlier this year, The Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Recognition Act (formerly Bill 1) celebrates Her Majesty’s 70 years of reign and honours her legacy of public service.

Along with 7,000 other Albertans this year, Melissa received a medal as a symbolic recognition of the Her late Majesty’s 70th anniversary.?

As Canada and the rest of the world navigate the passing of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we are reminded of the intrinsic value of public and community service.

Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, and this historic milestone to recognize her legacy across the Commonwealth.

Nonprofits play such an important role in civil society; a strong sector is often the key to thriving communities as the sector touches virtually all aspects of community life in Alberta.

According to the Government of Alberta, approximately 286,000 Albertans are employed in the sector, and 1.9 million Albertans volunteer across cultural sectors. The non-profit/voluntary sector contributes almost $5.5 billion in GDP (gross domestic product) to the Alberta economy.

At JA Southern Alberta, we are making an active effort to evolve, improve, and demonstrate that we understand and recognize the needs of communities in 2022 are different than they were in 2012, 2002, or in 1962 in the early years when JA Southern Alberta first began delivering nonprofit programming to students.

It is in this spirit that we congratulate Melissa From for her leadership and contributions to Junior Achievement and across Alberta within the nonprofit sector.?

With this award, we know we also have responsibilities:

To improve our programming to best serve the communities we partner with.

To recognize the diverse needs of communities and students.

To evolve as an organization so that we can lead, provide support, and increase our impact.

To learn, listen, and engage with the communities we serve to empower all youth to succeed in a global economy.

Congratulations to all of those individuals who received an award today and this year.

To learn more about the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal, visit the Government of Alberta website, here.