Canadian Forces veteran Lee-Anne Quinn is one of six people named as a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Peterborough, who will be celebrating the recipients with a dinner and ceremony next week.
Named for Rotary International founder Paul Percy Harris, Rotary’s highest recognition is given to both Rotarians and non-Rotarians who exemplify Rotary’s motto of “Service above Self” in the categories of community, international, vocational, youth, and environment. Each recipient receives a Paul Harris Fellow certificate and a Paul Harris pin.
The other five people named as Paul Harris Fellows by Peterborough Rotary are Myke Healy and Darlene Callan (youth), Dorothy Taylor (environment), Kathi Curtin Williams (community), and Kateryna Sysoieva (international).
Quinn was named as a Paul Harris Fellow in the category of vocational service, which focuses on adherence to and promotion of the highest ethical standards in all occupations, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the contribution of vocational talents to solving the problems of society and meeting the needs of the community.
For 22 years in the Canadian Forces, Quinn worked as an air medical evacuation nurse and U.N. peacekeeper, deployed in Somalia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan as well as isolated First Nations and Inuit communities in northern Ontario and Yukon.
After retiring from the military in 2008 with the rank of major, she moved to her hometown of Peterborough where she continued to worked as a nurse practitioner in primary health care. She received the Governor General’s Award of Military Merit in 2006 and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2012.
Now serving as the first-ever female honorary lieutenant colonel in the Hastings and Prince Edward County Regiment, Quinn is also part of a group of Peterborough-area residents who have sponsored Syrian refugees to come to Canada.
Quinn was the guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Peterborough’s meeting on Monday (November 6), where the key message of her talk was “every human on the face of this Earth deserves to be treated humanely.”
Members of the public are invited to help Rotary celebrate Quinn and the other five Paul Harris Fellows on Monday, November 13th at the Peterborough Golf and Country Club, beginning with a social gathering at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person and can be purchased by contacting Rotarian Bill Crins at bcrins@cogeco.ca and sending an etransfer to treasurerpeterboroughrotary@gmail.com.
