Leadership award still a surprise for area senior of distinction

Commentator/Courier Photo Submitted Star Senior: Seniors of Distinction Award Winner Joyce Stuber poses with her Leadership award at the AgeCare Valleyview award ceremony.

By Anna Smith
Commentator/Courier

Joyce Stuber is a busy woman, from her embroidery business to everything she’s done for  Dunmore Equestrian; despite this, she says that receiving AgeCare Valleyview’s Senior of Distinction Award was still a surprise.

Stuber is from the Medicine Hat area, near Seven Persons, and has called the Southeast Corner her home her entire life. 

“I came from a farm and then moved to a ranch. So we ranch in the Boxsprings Road area. My husband and two kids. The kids are taking over the farm, the ranch,” said Stuber. “What else can I say?”

Outside of the ranch, Stuber worked as a teacher at Crescent Heights High School for 27 years, and was thrilled to teach near an entire generation of students Home Economics in that time.

“I wanted to be a foods teacher because that was a more hands on, fun kind of thing. And everybody would want to take it,” said Stuber. “But once I started teaching, I really liked fashion and a bit of sewing and yeah, so then I started teaching Home Ec. So I also have a part time embroidery business. So my passion was sewing. And I didn’t know that at the time when I first started teaching.”

While she says she’s trying to step back from her embroidery business, which she’s run for 22 years, she did laugh as she admitted that she didn’t see it as something she would ever fully retire from.

When she wasn’t working at any of these, she has long had another passion.

“I volunteer, I always volunteered, I volunteered all my hockey for the kids. I was a director, I was a manager or something. So I always volunteered,” said Stuber. “And then when I returned, I wanted to volunteer. So I started volunteering with Dunmore Equestrian, and I’m on the board for them.”

Stuber has also organized programs for seniors, such as animal visits, and incubating chicken eggs or raising caterpillars to bring much needed connection and enrichment to the centres.

“I kind of also incorporated an educational aspect of it. Because a lot of people don’t know anything about chickens or roosters, and it made me giggle and not very many knew about incubating. So it was really interesting. It was fun teaching,” said Stuber.

Stuber said that this is not the first time she’s received an award for her efforts, but it’s still a surprise, and she’s deeply grateful to those who nominated her, and that while she doesn’t so what she does for the acknowledgement, much preferring the way it helps and connects the seniors in these communities, “it was just really nice to be acknowledged.”