Med. Hat MS volunteer honoured with national recognition…
The Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society of Canada has just recognized some worthy people for its annual national 2020 Volunteer and Fundraising Awards and one of the recipients is from Southern Alberta.
Merrilee Tweedie, the treasurer for the southeastern Alberta chapter of the MS of Canada Council earned the Volunteer Impact in Local Community award for her tireless efforts in all of the events the southeast chapter does.
Tweedie has lived in Medicine Hat for 10 years and was diagnosed with MS when she was in her twenties. She is deeply humbled by the recognition.
“I am totally not the person who likes the limelight, I am not doing (the work) for anything other than for a cure… I would say every couple of months there is an event that I am involved in — to me it is just part of my life,” explains Tweedie. “I struggle to see that I am any more special than any one of the other women who have been on the board the entire time. You grow up knowing if this is going to get done, somebody needs to do it, so get involved.”
The amiable native of Saskatchewan explains the MS Society is quite active in a variety of different types of fundraisers. There is anything from being involved in the MS Walk, both walking when she lived in Calgary to help organize while she has been here; to do the fundraising barbecues at M&M Meat, working at the fundraising casino evenings to helping coordinate the Medicine Hat Tigers’ skills competition fundraiser that generates between $5,000-6,000.
“The Skills Competition — I like it; I think it’s cool. It’s not a regular thing we are attached to,” adds Tweedie. Nationally, the MS Society has the local chapters involved in different events such as the MS Walk; MS Read-a-Thon, Virtual MS Bike and #WeChallengeMS (virtual movement).
It is a family connection as Tweedie’s sister also helps out the MS Society, only on the national level. Being from small town Saskatchewan, MS was something not exactly uncommon in the community.
Tweedie has made many friends in Medicine Hat including one from Saskatchewan whose person’s hometown has a significant part of the population which has developed MS. Tweedie didn’t really know a lot of people outside of her own hometown who had it. Six of those in her graduating class of 66 developed MS, with one passing away recently.
“My sister is also involved in the Society not just because of me, but because we come from a town in Saskatchewan where it’s very prevalent where 20 per cent of the people have MS,” explains Tweedie, and adding no one in her family has MS. “So, it’s pretty heavy, but we also know a lot of people who have it and they have impacted our lives throughout, so we wanted to make a difference.
“I am the quiet one, well, she wouldn’t say that,” she says with a laugh. “Never in a million years would this be me, (earning accolades) so I was shocked. I am very humbled by it.”
Merrilee was in the banking industry for five years right out of university and then worked on the business side of the petroleum sector for many years before oil prices bottomed out and she returned to banking where she is a manager of one of the major bank branches in Medicine Hat. She also manages a storage facility.
Tweedie has met a lot of people from Saskatchewan while in Medicine Hat and loves it here. She loved getting involved in events and despite the fact she is so busy, she will always make time for getting involved.
“When I moved down here (from Calgary) and joined the council I am involved in pretty much every event that is put on where the MS Society is a benefactor to it. I just do it, because that’s what I do. Growing up in a small town, somebody has to do it so you just do it,” explains Tweedie. “Whenever the MS Society has something front and centre, anything basically, I am there. That is just what you do…Our hometown is 150 people, if something needed to be fixed or something needed to be shingled, we were out doing that, if someone needed food even if it wasn’t the optimal, you fed them. It needed to be done to get them through.”
Her appreciation for Medicine Hat has grown for many reasons, including the shared philanthropic ideals.
“If there’s something to be done, I just schedule it into my schedule,” explains Tweedie. “Am I short staffed, yup, but I also have to have a life outside and my life outside, I choose to be involved. People will ask how do I do it all. My question is, ‘why don’t you?’ Somebody has to, right? Plus, I am able to listen to neurologists who are doing specific research and finding specific things for MS and the fight to get to the point …I have lived with MS for virtually half of my life, but I am not affected (because of) the research. When I was diagnosed, there was two different kinds. Now, there’s a lot of different types of MS.”
Tweedie is grateful for the progress being made in the research and development of treatment for MS. She adds if you looked at her, you would never know she has MS.
“I was put on a drug that was experimental at the time, I have never gone off it. It worked for me, it doesn’t work for everybody. The time spent doing stuff like that, the involvement and the fact the neurologists come and talk to the group of volunteers, and if you were volunteering with the MS Society, you would have equal opportunity to hear that as well. Before (the pandemic) you go to the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (at the University of Calgary) to see what the research is and what they are actually working on and some of it is pretty cool.”
To volunteer for the MS Society of Canada: Southeastern Alberta Chapter, please visit: https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/b479a8f8-d031-448c-9e9aa6e321b449bf/1