Skip to content

Longtime Rimbey educator nominated for Excellence in Teaching award

9766rimbeyDale-with-teachers
Rimbey teacher Dale Ewanchuk (left) has been nominated for an Excellence in Teaching award by fellow teacher Kim Flaman who is joined in he picture by school principal Tim Lekas.

Staff

A longtime Rimbey high school teacher is up for a prestigious award following his nomination by one of his fellow teachers with a little help from the school’s principal.

Dale Ewanchuk, who has been teaching at the Rimbey Jr./Sr. High School for over 30 years, will be heading to Calgary for a banquet on April 23 where he’ll join 99 other teachers from across Alberta who will be recognized for their hard work and dedication in the field of education.

“Every year there’s a call for nominations for an Excellence in Teaching award. Each year we receive the invitation but not every year does somebody take the initiative to do something with it, but this year one of our teachers really felt like they should be nominating Dale,” said Principal Tim Lekas. “He’s moving into the twilight of his career and everybody in our building, and everybody in the community knows Dale and knows he does a great job with the kids so it was a great time to nominate him.”

Making the recognition even more special is the fact that Ewanchuk was nominated by one of his peers – that being the school’s French teacher Kim Flaman who said he has been a great inspiration to herself.

“He is a great man to work with and is the epitome of what a great teacher is, in my opinion,” she said.

Joining Flaman in nominating Ewanchuk were local resident Ann Mayner whose son and daughter attended classes taught by the nominee along with Lekas who said to the best of his memory, is a first for a teacher from this community.

“Has a teacher from Rimbey been nominated and made it to this level before? No, not during my 16 years here. Dale has worked very hard and he certainly deserves the recognition,” Lekas said of Ewanchuk who currently teaches Career Technology Studies. “I think everybody in the school knows that Dale’s number one strength is that he really cares and wants to help every kid. He does it with a lot of humour and the kids love him. There’s no question they love being in his class. We couldn’t have a better person back there and we’re very pleased that he’s made it to that level because he sure deserves it.”

During the Calgary banquet, five teachers in particular will be selected for special recognition however merely the fact that Ewanchuk was among the top 100 of nominations that numbered between 400 and 500 province-wide, speaks volumes of the quality of his work.

As for the nominee, the soft-spoken Ewanchuk quickly deferred any praise for himself back onto the school and the residents of the community for all the support he’s received throughout his career.

“To tell you the truth, this is more than a school nomination rather than a Dale Ewanchuk nomination. I guess all I can say is I’m very proud,” he said. “The community has been so supportive. It seems like any time a teacher needs support, they’re there for you. Just the other day I phoned a parent on an attendance issue and both parents made an effort to thank me for phoning them and said it will not happen again and the student will be there. So with support like that, what more could I ask for?”