EMSB honours volunteers with awards ceremony

The English Montreal School Board celebrated the volunteers that make a difference in their community with an award ceremony on Tuesday night.

Two awards were handed out.

The recipients of the Volunteer Ambassadors of the Year award are Lina Di Giovanni, her husband Joseph Perretta and daughter Alexia Perretta.

The family owns the Montreal Arctic junior AAA hockey team.

Their players visit EMSB schools regularly to encourage students to excel in sports and education in addition to gifting thousands of tickets to schools each season.

For years, Di Giovanni was also a volunteer librarian.

“I just enjoyed reading to the kids,” Di Giovanni explained. “I mean, I have my boutique and I used to pay employees to work there so I could spend time with the school volunteering. It’s a wonderful feeling,” she explained.

READ MORE: #GreatMTLer: Judy Martin’s life of philanthropy

Laura Saragosa was honoured with the Volunteer of Distinction award.

She helped in securing funding for the Mackay Centre School.

She also aided the Edward Murphy Elementary school in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in building its playground.

Saragosa says weeds were so overgrown in between the concrete, kids would usually play hide-and-seek in them.

“It was a nice journey so far and I’m hoping to continue this journey,” Saragosa told Global News.

“I love volunteering. There’s so much satisfaction that you get out of it.”

The event was emceed by Global’s Elysia Bryan-Baynes, who is, in fact, an alumni of the EMSB’S Royal West Academy.