‘Mantracker’ awarded Canada 150 service medal

Two people with connections to Avening – Terry Grant of High River, Alberta, and Shannon Kirk, along with her husband Tom Kirk, of Longview, Alberta – were recipients of a Canada 150 Medal for Service awarded to Ambassadors of the Community in the Municipal District of Foothills, Alberta.

The medals were presented by local MP John Barlow at a ceremony held in High River, Alberta on June 28.

Terry Grant, also known as Mantracker has put High River on the international map due to filming six seasons of his show which has been televised in dozens of countries around the world.

His name was submitted as he is very humble and most people do not know how much time he volunteers at charity events each year.

Grant has trained British soldiers on how to track in hopes of preventing injuries from land mines in Afghanistan.

For the past four years he has been a role model for Canadian children in his role as Chief Scout for the Boy Scouts of Canada.

Grant also donates his time to Alberta Hunters Education Association running a women’s week every year. He was with Foothills Search and Rescue for many years, assisted Turner Valley police with man searches and wrote a textbook that is being used by Calgary City Police mounted patrol.

Shannon and Tom Kirk have many achievements on top of already owning the Longview Jerky Shop.

Both Tom and Shannon are volunteer firefighters and were instrumental in helping people escape the 2013 floods.

They worked non-stop to ensure the people of Black Diamond had clean drinking water and came up with an ingenious way to get 911 communications to the town of Black Diamond.

Today, they continue to volunteer day or night responding to fires, vehicle accidents and extreme weather incidents.

When the Kirks aren’t working or responding to fire calls they can be found helping with community barbecues, parades and just about anything else the community needs.

Each recipient was chosen by a panel of judges, from a nomination package which required letters from a nominator, a letter from a seconder, the nominee’s resume and supporting materials consisting of photos and newspaper articles. Nominees could not be nominated by a spouse, member of immediate family, nor awarded posthumously.

Terry Grant is the son of the late Sylvia (Grant) Gale of Avening and Warren Gale of Arnprior.

Shannon Kirk is the Gale’s granddaughter and daughter of Shannon Grant-Sosnoski.

– Submitted by Laurie Rowe