In late February, the Town of Wilkie announced their 2019 Citizen and Junior Citizen of the Year.

Citizen of the Year actually went to two people this year, being awarded to husband and wife Jim and Pat Exley. Meanwhile, Junior Citizen of the Year was awarded to Kabri Sittler.

Lori Fenrich, the Parks and Recreation Director for Wilkie, gave her speech about Kabri.

“Kabri is a Grade 12 student. She excels at academics, as well as pretty much any sport. She’s a local lifeguard, she’s compassionate, humble, intelegent, talented, and resilient. She is what being from Wilkie means; pure awesome.”

Jim and Pat Exley have been involved in the community for many years, with Pat being a Kindergarden teacher. Fenrich also had kind words for them.

“They’re involved with everything from Curtosey Car, Meals on Wheels, Knights of Columbus, K40, Golf Clubs, CWL, Pink Night, and they both had full teaching careers.”

While they are both retired at this point, they will step up when a substitute teacher is needed. While neither of them were born and raised in Wilkie, they have been living in the community for well over 40 years.

The announcement was made on February 29th at 10:30, right in the middle the town’s annual Farmer’s Days celebration.

Farmer’s Days began on the 28th with a 3 on 3 shinny tournament late in the afternoon, and was followed by a family Bingo Tournament at the Community Hall. Events carried over to Saturday with a pancake breakfast and a treasure hunt.

Wilkie’s criteria for their Citizen of the year positions were someone that is active and supportive in the community, and who enjoy lending their time to help others in the community.

While there was only one nomination for Junior Citizen of the Year, there were seven for the standard Citizen of the Year award.