Lifetimes of Achievement

Ted and Helen Hughes named as recipients of Leadership Victoria award

A new year can bring many resolutions for most people, but well-known local residents Helen and Ted Hughes have already amassed their fair share of good deeds through a shared lifetime of community devotion. The couple is named today as this year’s recipients of the annual Leadership Victoria Lifetime Achievement Award.

The couple will accept the Lifetime Achievement Award at the fifth annual Victoria’s Leadership Awards fundraising event on Thursday, Feb. 5 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria.

“Helen and Ted are the epitome of the finest qualities of community commitment,” says Kate Mansell, president of Leadership Victoria. “We are truly blessed by their presence here in Victoria. They may be the recipients of this Lifetime Achievement Award but our community is the recipient of their inspiring and exemplary leadership.”

“A leader must have other people with whom to work towards a goal,” says Helen Hughes, “and Victorians have shown their concern and compassion. Being involved in a diversity of activities and causes makes life easier and better for all, and leads to a better quality of life for citizens of all ages in Greater Victoria.”

The couple devote themselves tirelessly to public service and for nearly three decades have been inspiring the Greater Victoria volunteer community with their dedicated civic efforts. They moved to Victoria in 1980 and Helen spent 10 working years at the Office of the Ombudsman and the BC Council of Human Rights. For the past 18 years she has been an active member of Victoria City Council, only just retiring from council in November. High on the list of her volunteer interests and accomplishments is the annual Souper Bowls of Hope, a fundraiser initiated by Helen in 1997 with the Victoria Youth Empowerment Society to assist at-risk youth and support empowerment through educational and recreational activities. She received the Order of Canada for her work with Aboriginal communities while on Saskatoon’s city council in the 1970s.

Ted is currently the Co-Chair of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. He is a respected jurist—a judge, lawyer, former conflict of interest commissioner for the province, a deputy attorney general for BC, a chief federal treaty negotiator and the chair of innumerable commissions of inquiry. Ted has been a volunteer in health-related initiatives including as past chair of Juan de Fuca Hospitals and former chair of the CNIB capital fundraising drive. He also holds an Order of Canada and they are both recipients of honorary degrees from the University of Victoria.

The distinguished duo most recently received a local Generosity of Spirit Award for National Philanthropy Day on Nov. 17, 2008. Ted and Helen have been married for more than 50 years, and have four children as well as eight grandchildren.

The recipients of the individual Victoria’s Leadership Awards in three categories—the Rotary Community Leadership Awards, the Vancity Youth Award, the University of Victoria Community Leadership Awards—will be announced at the Feb. 5 event, as will the new Victoria Foundation Community Leadership award in recognition of a charitable organization that has demonstrated exceptional community service and positive change. For tickets to the event, call 250-386-2269 or send an email to layla@leadershipvictoria.ca.

Leadership Victoria, an action and study program dedicated to honing the skills of current and future local leaders, established the annual awards program in 2004.

A full list of this year’s award nominees will be available at www.leadershipvictoria.ca.
 

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