YMCA Peace Week and the Peace Medallion

YMCA Statement on Peace

YMCA Peace Week takes place in November and is a time when we celebrate the presence of peace in our communities, and reflect on the peace-building work that happens all year both inside and outside the YMCA.  The YMCA believes peace is more than the absence of violence and conflict. Peace is the ongoing work of building and rebuilding conditions of fairness, inclusion, empathy, security, and respect for diversity. When Canadians embody the values of PEACE through our daily actions, we can build a better Canada.

Peace Medallion

Each year, YMCAs across Canada celebrate acts of peace by recognizing individuals or groups who, without any special resources, status, wealth or position, have demonstrated a commitment to building peace within our community.  Nominate a peace maker in our community for a YMCA Peace Medallion today! Please fill out the online form above, or, if you prefer to include more detail, feel free to download the form here.

Guidelines: 

  • Nominations should focus on activities that have taken place within the last two years
  • Professionals who are paid to do peacemaking work are not eligible for nomination

Cindy Pope

Peace Medallion Recipient 2024

The YMCA of Fredericton is honoured to announce that Cindy Pope is this year’s recipient of the prestigious YMCA Peace Medallion.

For over 20 years, Cindy Pope has donated her precious time to give back to both her local community and the global community. Cindy’s friends describe her as a collaborator and a connector. She is the driver of many partnerships and has surrounded herself with a network of like minded people that have contributed so much to this city.

Cindy consistently thinks of others on both a local scale and a global scale.

When the Fredericton Public Library reached out for support to launch the Community Fridge, Cindy was able to leverage a partnership with Scholtens to provide a bounty of healthy food for those in need.

During the Harvest Music Festival, while Cindy was busying her days with volunteering, she realized all of the apples on her tree were ripe. Knowing that she would not have time to do anything with them, she and her daughters harvested the apples and delivered them to the Food Bank where they were used the next day in the Learning Kitchen to teach guests how to make apple sauce.

Her impact can be felt in Belize where she co-founded an organization called “The Canadian Friends of St. Hilda’s School” that provides a scholarship that benefits 1 – 3 students each year.

Cindy invests a considerable amount of time with the United Way, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Harvest Music Festival, Greener Village, Run for the Cure, Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada and 100 Women Who Care Fredericton.

Cindy’s volunteering and mobilizing of people towards just causes demonstrates her commitment to building peace within our community. We are grateful for peacemakers like Cindy in our community.

Past Peace Medallion Recipients

2023 – Marty Forsythe

2016 – Mary Dickinson

2012 – Patricia Ellsworth

2009 – Sister Eleanor McCloskey, CND

2005 – Brigid Toole Grant

2002 – Comité de l’avenir

1999 – Pauline Cunningham

1996 – Judy Loo

1992 – Judge Graydon Nicholas

1988 – Allayne Armstrong (posthumously)

2015 – Jan Lockhart

2012 – Dr. Colleen O’Connell

2008 – The Epsilon Y’s Men and Y’s Menettes

2004 – Anna Christie

2001 – Lorenzo Fabro

1998 – Brian and Elaine Perkins – McIntosh

1995 – Valerie Drury

1991 – St. Paul’s Refugee Committee

1987 – Jim and Kay Bedell

2018 – Dr. Paul Ross

2014 – Andy Scott (posthumously)

2011 – Jon V. Oliver

2007 – Yvonne Mersereau, Gloria Paul

2003 – Karl McLellan

2000 – Judy Coates

1997 – Inez Flemington (posthumously)

1994 – Transition House

1990 – Richard Blaquière

2021 – Georgette Roy

2017 – Kim MacDonald

2013 – Norm Laverty

2010 – Johnny Evans

2006 – Mavis Doucette

2003 – Charlotte Gallagher (posthumously)

1999 – Juan Montalvo (posthumously)

1997 – Robert and Marie Young

1993 – Concerned Youth for Development

1989 – Father Monte Peters