Fire chief honoured with Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award

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Doug Griffiths, Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs, presents Morinville Fire Chief Ron Cust with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Feb. 26. – Melinda Steenbergen Photo

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – When Morinville Fire Chief Ron Cust was told to wear his uniform and report to Municipal Affairs in Edmonton, he was not sure what to expect. What he found was a set of hands waiting to shake his and to pin a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal to his chest.

Cust was presented the award Feb. 26 by Minister of Municipal Affairs Doug Griffiths, Deputy Minister Paul Whittaker, and Trent West the Alberta Fire Commissioner, the latter of whom nominated Cust along with some Morinville residents for his exemplary Service in Fire Fighting and volunteer work in Morinville.

“I was quite honoured because I was in the company of the Fire Commissioner and found out at the last minute,” Cust said. “Having the Minister of Municipal Affairs, who is the head of the Fire Services, present the medal was quite an honour.”

Cust is one of 800 firefighters nationwide to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. “About 85,000 firefighters serve in Canada and 800 medals were allocated to the Fire Services. So being included in those 800 firefighters from across Canada – I’m honoured to be part of that very select and small group of people that received that particular medal, especially as it is a volunteer capacity as opposed to serving the community in a fulltime capacity service.”

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9 Comments

  1. Congratulations Ron Cust! You truly deserve the medal for all the hard work you do not only in line of your work but also all the volunteer work you do in the community.
    Linda Lyons

  2. Congratulations Chief!!! Well deserved for your decades of volunteer service. I am proud to say I worked with you, for you and now as a peer. Félicitations!

  3. I am quite honored to know you! Congratulations Ron- well deserved!

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